Women and Racism
Forum:

A Discussion
on the United Nations

World Conference Against Racism

Presentation
by Commissioner Susan Halliday, 30 November 2000

I would like to
begin by acknowledging and paying my respects to the Eora people, the
traditional owners of the land on which we are meeting today.

Commissioner Bill
Jonas has already talked about the upcoming World Conference Against Racism
and the importance of using this opportunity to speak out against racism,
xenophobia and intolerance. As the Sex Discrimination Commissioner I believe
that we should use the World Conference Against Racism to adopt a gender-based
approach to the analysis of racism. Australia is one of the most ethnically
diverse nations in the world. Women make up over half of Australia's population.
Without looking at how women, particularly different groups of women,
experience racism, we are unable to understand or properly work to eliminate
both racism and sexism.

Racism and sexism
compound other forms of discrimination and if this multidimensional aspect
is not recognized, simple responses to women as only raced or sexed beings,
will be, at best, limited and at worst, harmful. In addition, racism and
sexism do not affect all women equally or in the same way. A woman's socio-economic
position, race, ethnicity, color, national or ethnic origin, her citizenship
status, religion or class will affect the way she is treated and responded
to by others including other women and by the system.

This was acknowledged
by Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in a speech
made earlier this year:

A gender analysis of racial discrimination recognizes that racial
discrimination does not affect men and women equally, or in the same way.
To promote and protect the rights of all persons to be free from racial
discrimination, it is necessary to ensure the rights of women when they
are similarly situated to men and when they are not. There are circumstances
in which women suffer racial discrimination of a different kind or to
a different degree than men, or in which discrimination primarily affects
women.(1)

Concern about the
specific position of women in relation to race issues was echoed recently
when at the first PrepCom of the World Conference Against Racism, more
than 40 non-government organizations, representing all regions of the
world came together to form a women's human rights caucus to address the
interests of women and girls who are victims of racism.

They did so because,
like us, they believe that in many cases, the intersection of race and
gender discrimination leaves women facing violations of their rights that
are unique to them. In their view too, the world conference must include
gender, as well as age, class, sexual orientation, and economic status
in its analysis in order for it to be truly reflective of the reality
of women's lives and for the remedies to be effective. Two of their objectives
include making gender, as well as other multiple identities distinct items
on the world conference agenda and the positioning of women in leadership
and decision making roles.

We recognize Indigenous
women and all Indigenous Australians as the first Australians who occupy
a central and unique position in Australia society. Racism affecting Indigenous
women has its historical roots in colonialism, dispossession and attempted
annihilation of Indigenous peoples through assimilationist policies. These
atrocities have left a legacy of intergenerational social, mental, physical
and economic devastation and poverty.

Aboriginal women
were not only dispossessed from their families and communities, many also
lost knowledge of their cultural heritage, their languages and connection
to their land. Together with the continuing impact of the forced removal
of Indigenous children and the subsequent physical, sexual and emotional
abuse, the suffering of Indigenous mothers, grandmothers, wives, partners,
sisters, aunties, daughters, is immeasurable. Despite all this, they have
survived, remain resilient in the face of continuing adversity and maintain
a generosity of spirit.

Many immigrant,
refugee and asylum seeker women similarly face great difficulties albeit
from a different historical basis. Discrimination against them is compounded
often by their lack of immigration status, experiences of torture and
trauma due to wars and civil unrest, and for some, a denial of access
to any or some basic services including an income. Many do not have recourse
to domestic remedies because of their status as non-nationals leaving
them open to extreme exploitation particularly in the areas of sexual
and employment related discrimination. For many poverty, a general lack
of sympathy towards asylum seekers and refugees, racism, xenophobia, sexism,
grief and language difficulties combined with attacks on some of them
because of their religious and cultural differences, result in undermining
their confidence and ability to realize their basic human rights in Australia.

Let me now briefly
highlight some specific issues affecting Indigenous, asylum seeker, refugee
and immigrant women. They demonstrate the importance of dialogue between
women and the need to take seriously the multidimensional facets of women's
lives.

The lack of social
justice in Indigenous women's lives is profound. There are very clear
disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous women across all indicators
of quality of life. The 1996 census told us that:

• Indigenous females have a life expectancy of 61.7 years, almost twenty
  years less than non-Indigenous women;
• 11% of Indigenous adults hold a post-school educational qualification
  compared to 31% of non-Indigenous people.
• The average income for Indigenous women was $190 a week compared
  to $224 a week for non-Indigenous women.
• 23.1% of Indigenous mothers in 1996 were teenagers, more than four
  times the non-Indigenous rate;
• the proportion of low birth weight babies of Indigenous mothers is
  twice the rate than for non-Indigenous mothers;
• the fetal death rate among births to Indigenous mothers is more than
  double that of non-Indigenous births.(2)

Mandatory sentencing
laws have disproportionately affected Indigenous women compared to other
women. The Australian Women Lawyer's Association has estimated, based
on figures from the Northern Territory Correctional Services Department,
that there was a 223% increase in the number of Indigenous women incarcerated
in the first year of operation of the legislation. At 30 June 1999, Indigenous
women made up 91% of all women prisoners - an increase on the figure in
previous years.(3)

Indigenous women
are seriously affected by the lack of interpreter services in Aboriginal
languages, which denies many women in remote and rural areas access to
health, legal and other essential services.

Unemployment among
Indigenous Australians is estimated to be 38% according to the government's
report National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Indigenous women
continue to be dispossessed of their land through racist Native Title
Act amendments. They suffer the continuing effects of separation from
their families.

Despite all this,
Indigenous women's strength and resilience has been a powerful force in
helping their communities survive. It is Indigenous women who have taken
a stand against alcohol and drug abuse, a legacy of intergenerational
poverty and despair. In some areas like Curtain Springs and Wiluna, Indigenous
women have initiated alcohol restrictions and social programs, which have
resulted in a significant reduction of deaths (due to alcohol related)
accidents, domestic violence, poverty and incarceration. Aboriginal women's
art is nationally and internationally acclaimed.

Indigenous women
along with their brothers are leading in many areas of the struggle for
equality and recognition of their unique and central position as Australia's
first peoples and the traditional owners of land.

We often hear that
for reconciliation to be lasting it must live in the 'hearts and minds'
of all Australians. We have not achieved reconciliation. It is a long
and difficult process to which we must be committed beyond the walks for
reconciliation, wonderful and heartening as they have been and to be continued
I hope. I place the success of the reconciliation process at a higher
level. For it to be truly meaningful and lasting it must involve the full
recognition and protection of the rights of all Australians - including
those of Indigenous peoples. Governments and the community must be committed
to the long haul of action and attention to the detail that is required
for Indigenous people to achieve equality. It must be done on their terms.
Unfortunately the Federal government has recently rejected the principle
of self-determination, considered fundamental to the realisation of Indigenous
peoples rights in this country.

In relation to asylum
seeker, refugee and immigrant women, the Beijing platform for action,
paragraph 46, recognises:

...that women face barriers to full equality and advancement
because of such factors as their race, age, language, ethnicity, culture,
religion or disability, because they are indigenous women or because of
other status ... Additional barriers also exist for refugee women, other
displaced women, including internally displaced women, as well as for
immigrant women and migrant women, including women migrant workers.

These women experience
severe disadvantage in all areas of their lives. It is compounded in the
case of asylum seekers by their lack of status and a denial of their rights
to judicial review and other forms of redress.

Asylum seeker and
refugee women are mandatorily detained for long periods of time, in basic
conditions, many in remote parts of Australia with no access to the world
beyond the detention centre. Women in these centres are victims of unnecessary
and prolonged detention and suffer unacceptable conditions whilst they
are detained such as no contact with loved ones. The rights of children
being detained are not adequately protected, as are the rights of asylum
seekers not to be arbitrarily detained.(4)

Selective use of
language by government, media and others such as "illegal" "criminal elements"
"queue jumpers" etc is undermining human rights protection of asylum seeker
and refugee women and men. Xenophobic undertones underpin the increasing
tendency in Australia to demonise those who come here escaping from trauma,
persecution, wars, and economic, political social and cultural devastation.
While many come in search of a better life, many others come simply in
order to survive.

The most recent attempt
by government to change the domestic violence provision of the Migration
Act, if successful, threatens to force partner sponsored migrant women
in domestic violence situations to remain in the violent situation or
face destitution and possible deportation.

Newly arrived immigrant
women must wait two years before they are entitled to receive income support,
including the safety net payment of Special Benefit, regardless of their
hardship. The impact has been devastating resulting in poverty, malnutrition,
illness stress and family breakdown for some. Others have been forced
into exploitative employment situations, including, in some cases, prostitution.

Anecdotally, it appears
that the 1996 Workplace Relations Act has resulted in many women,
especially immigrant and refugee women, being disadvantaged in employment
due to inequality in bargaining power and linguistic and cultural difficulties.
Many are not able to bargain on equal terms with employers. This leaves
them vulnerable to exploitation and low wages.

Of the 329,000 home-based
workers in the clothing and textile industries, most are women from immigrant
non-English speaking background with very little knowledge of their rights
and entitlements.(5) Conditions are poor, their rates
of pay low, chronic injury is commonplace, and children are involved in
this work.(6) Many work in excess of 60 hours per week
with no annual leave payments or workers' compensation cover and payments
have amounted to as little as two dollars per hour.

Many refugee and
immigrant women are denied access to employment in their chosen profession
or trade because of barriers to recognising overseas qualifications or
racism.

Immigrant and refugee
women experience markedly higher rates of employment-related illnesses,
injuries and disabilities than their Australian born and English speaking
counter parts due to their location within the labour market that predisposes
them to high unemployment and hazardous employment; the nature and conditions
of the unpaid work in maintaining households caring for family members,
and the very real constraints on access to key social resources namely
English classes, social supports, income, housing, transport and child
care.

There has been a
sharp decline in the information collected and independent research on
refugees and immigrants. Scant or no information will render this group
more and more invisible in programme planning and service delivery by
ignoring their needs.

Negative images
of non-English speaking background women especially those visibly different
from Anglo-Australian people such as Asian, Middle-Eastern, black Africans,
Southern Europeans are often portrayed in the media, TV radio and films.
The other extreme is their complete absence in the media as if they do
not exist in Australian society at least in ways that warrant their affirmation
in the public arena.

Increasingly, groups
within society with distinct identities and issues are being denied the
right to speak for themselves. Advocacy organisations are being defunded
in the name of mainstreaming. Men or mainstream women's groups are given
the role of speaking for Indigenous, migrant or refugee women. Often the
effect is one of invisibility of these women and the issues specific to
them. Indigenous, migrant and refugee women have a right to speak on their
own terms - it is a fundamental human right.

Indigenous, immigrant,
refugee and asylum seeker women who are lesbians face discrimination both
in the general community and within their own specific communities. Much
of this discrimination is justified on the basis of religious beliefs
and community norms. We must support these women's rights too.

In this context,
the Australian government's recent refusal to sign or ratify the Optional
Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW) becomes an important issue. The Optional Protocol
establishes a new complaints procedure for women around the world who
have suffered human rights abuses. The government's refusal to become
a party to it shows little understanding of, or commitment to the rights
of Australian women to have recourse to the full range of remedies including
those beyond our borders. Once again, I urge the Australian Government
to reconsider and sign the Optional Protocol.

I have by no means
outlined all the race, gender and other issues Indigenous, immigrant and
refugee women face on a daily basis. I present these here today simply
to begin the discussions and encourage you to talk with each other and
with us at HREOC about your issues, concerns, and evidence in relation
to sex and race discrimination in Australia.

We have the task
collectively to devise workable strategies to combat racism and sexism.
We know that despite laws and programs to combat these discriminations,
direct, indirect and institutional forms of discrimination persist. Formal
equality as expressed in laws and policies do not deliver substantive
equality in most instances. We need to ensure real equality by devising
strategies and programs that take account of the differences that women
experience and respond accordingly.

While these laws
and policies must be maintained and improved we must also in the words
of Aung San Suu Kyi understand that

the quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born
of an intellectual conviction of the need for change in mental attitudes
and values. without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced
the iniquities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing
a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration.

The aim of the World
Conference Against Racism indeed is to identify innovative and effective
ways to shape the spirit of this new century in recognition of the inescapable
fact that all of us, whatever our differences, belong to one human family.

I believe as do all
of us here I am sure, that the World Conference Against Racism should
reaffirm a vision where a person's gender, colour, ethnicity, nationality,
race, religion, sexuality, class or any other difference, makes no difference
to that person's entitlement and in fact go further to help her realize
her full potential.

I urge you to speak
up and speak out - against racism and sexism.

Footnotes

1.
Extract from a speech made by the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights, Ms Mary Robinson, at Women 2000: A symposium on Future Directions
for Human Rights at Columbia University in New York.

2.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Indigenous mothers and their
babies 1994-1996, AIHW National Perinatal Statistics Unit, Sydney, 1999.

3.
This is based on unofficial Department of Correctional Services (NT) figures
for the 1998-99 financial year. In numerical terms there were 43 Indigenous
women imprisoned in the 1995-96 financial year, increasing to 225 in 1997-98
and 276 in the 1998-99 financial year: Australian Women Lawyer's Association,
op.cit. This increase cannot be attributed to the introduction of mandatory
sentencing alone, however.

4.
See joint submission by the Race Discrimination and Human Rights Commissioner
of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity commission to the Department
Of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs February 2000, and to the CERD
in June 2000, and ICESCR in August 2000, concerning Mandatory Detention
of Asylum seekers in Australia.

5.
Textile, clothing and Footwear Union of Australia, Fairwear Campaign Kit;
Background Information, TUFCA, Melbourne.

6.
Mayhew, C & Quinlan, M, 'Outsourcing and Occupational Health and Safety;
a Comparative study of factory -based and outworkers in the Australian
TCF industry", Industrial Relations Research Centre Monograph no. 40,
University of New South Wales; Textile, clothing and Footwear Union of
Australia (TCFUA) 1995, The Hidden Cost of fashion, TCFUA.

Last
updated 1 December 2001