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Woman of the World - What can you do

Woman of the World -

Know Your International Human Rights

What can you do: the public sphere

CEDAW enshrines general rights that belong to all women around the world. It can be difficult to think of how to make these general rights relate to local issues that affect you in your daily life. However, every day, we can all work towards raising awareness and enforcing the rights enshrined in CEDAW, whether through individual action or together with others.

Use this kit to enhance any specific campaigns you are involved in, for example, a campaign against unfair employment practices, or to eliminate sexual harassment or violence against women.Below are several suggestions for actions that you can undertake to promote and support women's human rights in Australia. The actions are divided into public actions, which involve interacting with social institutions such as government, the media, the legal system, working with others through organisations, and private actions, which are everyday actions we can do on our own.

Private actions are dealt with in the next section - What you can do: Private actions.

Of course, many private actions have a public benefit. For example, raising awareness amongst your colleagues about discriminatory work practices involves attitudinal change and can result in higher workplace standards. Each public action also requires individuals to privately revisit their attitudes. It is useful to make sure that your actions work on both levels.

For further ideas, you can refer to The Women's Power Handbook, by Joan Kirner and Moira Rayner, published by Penguin Books in 2000.

Public actions

Lobbying:

Visit or write a letter to your Member of Parliament, relevant government Ministers, the Prime Minister, and opposition spokespeople, about the importance of human rights issues.

Politics and public life:

Support women who support women's human rights by nominating and voting for them in any election, whether it be for local council or for a federal seat, or nominate yourself! You can also join organisations that support women candidates and lobby government on women-friendly policies and legislation.

For more information go to the Women's Electoral Lobby: http://www.wel.org.au/ or the Young Women's Christian Association: http://www.worldywca.org

Support the promotion of women in organisations with high public profiles, such as the government, unions, the legal system and judiciary. Monitor how many women are in high decision-making roles in these organisations and lobby for more effective strategies that allow women to access these positions.

Nominate women that you know who deserve recognition of leadership skills for honours and awards. You can do this through the federal Office of the Status of Women's program, Honouring Women, an initiative which aims to decrease the discrepancy between the number of men and women who are honoured each year. In 2000, only 30.7% of all people recognised under the Order of Australia were women.

You can use this kit to run workshops or to organise campaigns with businesses, local councils, community and church groups.For further information, please go to: http://www.osw.dpmc.gov.au

Laws and policy:

You and your organisation can raise awareness amongst your peers and members, or women in your local community. It is important to talk about how to protect women's rights and ensure legislation such as the Sex Discrimination Act and other anti-discrimination laws in your state or territory can evolve to reflect the realities of women's lives.

You can also use this kit to enhance any specific campaigns you are involved in, for example, a campaign against unfair employment practices, or to eliminate sexual harassment or violence against women.

You can also raise awareness about women's rights in your school, university, college or at your workplace. You can use this kit to run workshops or to organise campaigns with businesses, local councils, community and church groups.