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About the National Women's
Justice Coalition Inc.
Last updated: 09/01/05
Last updated 09/01/05 |
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Purposes | Why a
Coalition? | Board | What can I do to help? | Membership | Sponsorship and
pro bono contributions | Address & contacts
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Purpose
The NWJC is a coalition of organisations and individuals which aims to promote
women's equality before the law in Australia.
In 1994 the Australian Law Reform Commission released three reports on Equality
Before the Law which in summary reported on what the ALRC refered to as the failure of
justice for women in Australia.
The NWJC was established in the wake of the
ALRC's reports in February 1995.
The NWJC was formed by Women's Legal Services (WLS's) and
WLS establishment groups in each Australian state and territory and the Women's Electoral Lobby (Australia). Networking
assistance at the point of formation was provided by CAPOW!
(the Coalition of Participating Organisations of Women).
The NWJC aims to promote women's equality before the law by working
at a national level and focusing on:
- raising awareness of issues relating
to women's legal equality
- coordinating and lobbying on women's
justice issues, and
- building networks and facilitating the
work of individuals and groups
The NWJC is working to create:
- A society that respects and protects basic
human rights allowing women, men and children to be treated fairly and without bias due to
gender or discrimination on any other grounds,
- A justice system which protects women's
rights equally, where women who for whatever reason, come into contact with the courts and
tribunals are respected and treated as individuals without bias or prejudice,
- A governmental system in which issues which
affect women, matters relevant to women's equality and women's views are routinely taken
into account in shaping policy,
- A legal system where women and men are
equally involved in the development, application, administration and enforcement of the
law, and
- A legal system where women's perspectives
are included in shaping legal concepts and doctrines and where career opportunities for
women are as diverse as the profession offers.
The NWJC endorses the UN Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Declaration on the
Elimination of Violence Against Women.
The NWJC considers that:
- women's subordination under the law is
an obstacle to the achievement of equality and it is a
manifestation of the historically unequal power relations
between men and women,
- women's subordination under the law
supports and entrenches women's economic, social and
political subordination in society, and
- violence against women is one of the
crucial social mechanisms by which women are forced into a
subordinate position and the legal system's tolerance of
violence against women is a key issue in women's legal
subordination.
The NWJC advances women's equality before the
law in Australia by promoting broad awareness of women's justice issues, networking
nationally, and providing advisory and technical assistance to members working on women's
justice issues.
The NWJC focuses on national issues and
national networking but assists state based and regional groups and individuals to link up
with expert assistance, form networks and provide effective input on state / territory and
local women's justice issues.
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Why
a Coalition?
The NWJC is a coalition of organisations and individuals because real progress on
women's legal equality in Australia will only be brought about through mass activity at
many levels. This is the only way we can hope to achieve real and sustainable
progress.
The national coalition approach opens up strategies and levels of support and activity
which are simply not possible using any other approach.
Every member of the coalition through their membership and commitment directly supports
and furthers their own work and the work of many thousands of others.
The membership currently includes about 35 national organisations, about 200 state based
services or networks and a similar number of individuals. Membership is open to
organisations and individuals who support the NWJC's purposes.
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Board
The NWJC Board consists of
representatives of organisations which are named in the NWJC's constitution and
non-voting individuals appointed from time to time by the Board.
The current members of the NWJC Board are:
Australian Feminist Law Foundation
NWJC Board rep: Helen Brown
The AFLF is a leading vehicle for feminist legal analysis in Australia. The Foundation
publishes the Australian Feminist Law Journal which has a stong focus on applied feminist
legal analysis.
Australian
Women Lawyers
NWJC Board rep: Dominique Hogan-Doran
AWL is the peak representative
group for practicing women lawyers in Australia. The membership consists of practicing
women lawyers groups from each state and territory.
National Association of
Services Against Sexual Violence
NWJC Board rep: Vanessa Swan
NASASV is the peak body for services throughout Australia whose
main focus is to provide counselling, support and advocacy for
victim/survivors of sexual violence.
National Network of
Indigenous Women's Legal Services
NWJC Board
rep: Boni Robertson
The NATSIWLS is a network for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women's legal services
and projects. The Network is a member of the National Network of Women's Legal Services
but also a Network it is own right.
National
Network of Women's Legal Services
NWJC Board rep: Lea Anderson
The network consists of all women's legal services including women's legal outreach
workers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women's Legal Services
Women's
Electoral Lobby (Australia)
NWJC Board rep: Elizabeth O'Brien
WEL is the best known and most pro active women's lobby in Australia. The membership
includes many of Australia's premier women lobbiests and from the 1970's WEL has played a
critical role in promoting the status of women in Australia and skilling women for the
purpose.
Women's
Services Network (WESNET)
NWJC Board rep: Veronica Wensing
WESNET is the national peak advocacy body
which works on behalf of women and children who are or have
experienced domestic and family violence. With
almost 400 members across Australia, WESNET represents a range of
organisations and individuals including women’s refuges, safe
houses and information/ referral services.
Individuals
Helen McGowan
Helen is a member of Australian Women in
Agriculture, the Country Women's Association, the NSW and Victorian Rural Women's
Networks. She is also a past convenor of the National Association of
Community Legal Centres Regional, Rural and Remote Network. Helen works as a lawyer at the Albury/Wodonga Community Legal Service
Maria Dimopoulos
Maria is a nationally regarded cross cultural consultant. After
completing her law degree she worked for the Domestic Violence
Incest Resource Centre in Victoria and became involved in national
lobbies particularly relating to women from a non-English speaking
background. She is a former chair of the Association of Non-English
Speaking Background Women of Australia and the recipient of an a
recipient of an Amnesty International Human Rights Award for her
work on the legal needs of women from NESB background.
Judy Harrison
Judy is a lawyer, lecturer and
legal consultant. She has worked as a lawyer in the ACT and NT,
held law reform and tribunal appointments and undertaken work around
Australia to help establish and strengthen community based legal
services. She is a Churchill Fellow, received a Vida Goldstein Award
for her work in establishing the NWJC's Australian Virtual Centre
for Women and the Law and a Centenary Medal for services to women
particularly women in regional, rural and remote Australia and
Indigenous women.
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What can I do to
help?
If you are interested to know what you can do to
help, the NWJC and our networks are probably concerned to know what we can do to help
you in your work or concerns about women's
justice issues.
You can help the NWJC and work with
many others to promote women's legal equality in Australia by: linking in and sharing your
knowledge, some of your energy and your skills. An easy way to do this is to provide
support and assistance to women's services in your area. If you need help, you are welcome
to contact us for suggestions. You can also link in by looking through the email lists
provided by the Australian Virtual Centre for Women
and the Law and participating actively in the lists of your choice. If you are a NWJC
member you are welcome to join the national NWJC members email list and the list for your
state or territory,
get active on issues, campaigns and
projects. You can do this in your area or state and you can help speed
the work of the NWJC no matter where you are in Australia. It is particularly
important that our elected parliamentary representatives continue to hear our views.
Taking note of the name and contact details of your elected state and federal representatives, so that
you can lobby them about women's justice issues,
joining the
NWJC - your membership helps demonstrate the level of support
for the NWJC's work and the level of concern to take positive strides to promote women's
legal equality in Australia. In addition, your membership directly contributes to the
NWJC's ability to deliver more, more, more!
if you wish to contribute
financially, whether or not you are a member of the NWJC, you can also make a tax
deductible donation to the National Foundation of Australian Women
naming the NWJC as the preferred donor. Also see sponsorship and pro bono contributions
below,
contacting the NWJC to share information or to get information about
women's justice issues getting onto the internet and having an email address
- this way you will be able to check the NWJC's home page and we can communicate with you much
faster and more cheaply than snail mail, and
bookmark the NWJC web site and check for information on current
inquiries, developments resourcing opportunities and the like.
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Membership
The NWJC's
membership consists of about 200 organisations including almost 35 national organisations.
In addition there are about 200 individual members. Take this
link to the Board report on membership, including membership list.
NWJC's members are committed to working to
promote women's equality before the law and to promoting the NWJC's objectives.
If you or your organisation agrees with
these objectives you are welcome to join. Take this link to
the membership application form.
Members: receive and provide assistance in
networking with other members and generally in relation to women's justice issues,
can use the Australian Virtual Centre
for Women and the Law to establish networking email lists for the benefit of their
organisations and networks, and
are welcome to join the
national NWJC members email list and the additional members email list for the state
or territory in which you are based. That is:
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Sponsorship and pro bono contributions
The NWJC welcomes enquiries about
financial and in-kind assistance. At
any given time the NWJC has a range of sponsorship opportunities relating to projects and
current issues.
Where appropriate the NWJC
undertakes projects in partnership and welcomes partnering enquiries.
The following are examples of organisations the NWJC has partnered with or received
financial or in-kind assistance from:
- ACT Chief Ministers Department
- Australian Legal Assistance Forum
- Canberra Community Foundation
- Computer Assistance Support and
Education Inc.
- Department of Communications, Information Technology and the
Arts
- Reichstein Foundation
- Law Foundation of NSW
- National Association of Community Legal Centres
- New South Wales Women's Refuge Resource and Referral Centre
- Northern Territory Public Purposes Trust
- Pamela Denoon Trust
- Public Interest Advocacy Service
- Social Change Online
- South Australian Law Society
- Stegley Foundation
- Law Council of Australia
- Office of the Status of Women
- Online Australia
- University of New England, Centre for Rural Research
- Upper Murray Family Care
- Victorian Law Foundation
In October 1999, NWJC launched the Australian Virtual Centre for Women and the Law http://www.nwjc.org.au/avcwl to provide new
services to members and to the community. The facility is managed and
provided by volunteers. Additional background is in the July 2000
update about the Virtual Centre which can be downloaded as a word doc (260KB) or word
zipped (180KB)
The NWJC
welcomes inquiries about supporting the development of the AVCWL.
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Address & contacts
National Women's Justice Coalition Inc.
GPO Box 3148
Canberra City ACT 2601 Australia
ph: 02 6247 2075 fax: + 02 6257 3070
email: nwjc@nwjc.org.au
home page: www.nwjc.org.au
Australian Virtual Centre for Women and the Law
email: virtualcentre@nwjc.org.au
web: www.nwjc.org.au/avcwl
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