Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and Sex Discrimination Commissioner say the findings of a Senate inquiry into murdered and missing First Nations women provide more evidence of how to address violence against women and girls in First Nations communities.
Over two years in the making, the report from the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee was tabled in the Senate yesterday with key recommendations to improve how Australia deals with domestic and family violence experienced in First Nations communities.
Ground-breaking work undertaken by the Australian Human Rights Commission to advance the health, safety and rights of First Nations women and girls through its Wiyi Yani U Thangani (Women’s Voices) Project was referenced extensively throughout the report.
The report’s 10 recommendations propose:
- New and sustainable funding for evidence-based community support and violence prevention programs led by First Nations women and tailored to community needs
- increasing the geographic spread and capacity of Family Violence Prevention Legal Services
- national best practice domestic violence and cultural safety training for police and other relevant service providers
- increasing police recruitment of First Nations people, including for senior management positions
- better guidelines for reviewing past cases involving disappeared and murdered First Nations women and children
- a dedicated First Nations advocate in the national Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission
- significant improvements to data collection and research about violence against First Nations women and girls
- independent annual audits of relevant national strategic plans to measure and evaluate progress on advancing the health, safety and rights of First Nations people
