10.00am-4.00pm
Tuesday, 29 June 2021
Sibyl Centre, The Women’s College, 15 Carillon Avenue Newtown NSW 2042
Transport and Location Details
Please see attached map with The Sibyl Centre clearly marked and details of public transport.
- Buses from Town Hall to College: 423, 426, 428, 430
- Buses from Central Station to College: 423, 426, 428, 430
- The bus stop to get off at is called King St opposite Carillon Ave (200818)Limited parking is available at The Women’s College via advanced booking – charges apply. Please use the booking form on a separate attachment.
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL FOR HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION
Dear Friends,
The past months have seen a renewed focus on how we, as a community, address sexual violence and harassment. Recent public scrutiny of institutional responses and media articles about sexual harassment has drawn close public attention on the issues, and more people have lent their voices to the urgent call for prevention efforts to be strengthened. I am one voice that has been activated by the various opinions and comments — nodding my head in enthusiastic agreement sometimes, shaking my head vigorously at others. Our main aim is to stop sexual harassment before it starts. It has become clear to me that we need to discuss more in order to achieve clarity of purpose. This is our principal focus for “EMPOWER ME”.
As President of the Australian Council for Human Rights Education, I am honoured that through this forum you will be able to share your experiences, concerns, knowledge and observations to address the fundamental human right to be safe from sexual harassment at home, at school, at work and in the community.
I acknowledge Fiducian Group Limited, The Women’s College, Institute of Global Peace and Sustainable Govern- ance for their funding support and sponsorship; Gineke de Haan, Belinda Knierim, Katrina Marson, Professor Simon Rice, Professor Kerry Robinson and Ms Dorothy Hoddinott AO for their advice and practical help.
I would like to acknowledge that this meeting is being held on the traditional lands of the Gadigal of the Eora na- tion, and pay my respects to Elders both past, present and those who will follow in their footsteps.
With best wishes,
Dr Zeny Edwards OAM
President, Australian Council for Human Rights Education
FORUM FACILITATOR
Katrina Marson is Senior Prosecutor (Sexual Offences Unit) at ACT Director of Pub- lic Prosecutions and Churchill Fellow 2018. She is a Criminal lawyer with particular experience in sexual offences and family violence; including in sexual offence law reform and policy. Her academic qualifications focused on gendered issues, especially sexual violence prevention, with several media articles published in this area.
Katrina served five years on the Board of the Canberra Rape Crisis. Her Churchill Fellowship focused on researching models of relationships and sex education and strategies for implementation across Europe and North America. A tutor in Evidence Law & Criminal Law at the Australian National University, Katrina has completed her Graduate Certificate in Higher Education.
I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it”
Maya Angelou
American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist
PANELLISTS
Maha Abdo OAM is CEO of Muslim Women Association (MWA) and has spent over three decades working together with the MWA to help give Muslim women safety and assurance in difficult and trying circumstances. Today she represents and gives voice to all women abroad as well as in Australia. She works at the local, national and international levels advising government on policy, services and strategies to create a harmonious community for future generations of Muslim and non-Muslim women. In 2016 Maha was the NSW Seniors Week Ambassador as well as the BreastScreen NSW Ambassador. In 2015 Maha was a finalist for the Australian Human Rights Commission’s Human Rights Medal, and in 2014 she was the NSW Human Rights Ambassador for 2014-15.
Denise Beckwith has worked in the disability-rights sector for more than 18 years and one of her major areas of work was the sexual rights of people with disability. Denise is a disability consultant and documentary photographer with Blur Projects, which creates human rights and social justice projects such as “Silent Tears”, the multimedia exhibition which explores the topic of violence that women with disability experience and violence that causes disability amongst women. Denise’s involvement in “Silent Tears” contributed to her becoming a PhD Candidature at Western Sydney University, where she is researching sexuality education provision for women with physical disability and experiences of violence. While completing her PhD, Denise is also working as a social work academic at various tertiary institutions.
Andrea Christie–David is a Director of Relationships Australia (NSW), a large not for profit organisation delivering counselling, family support, family dispute resolution, and children’s support services across New South Wales. She was previously the Chief Operating Officer of Salvos Legal Humanitarian. Andrea completed a Master of International Law at the University of Sydney, during which time she undertook an internship at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. She holds a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws, Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice and a Master of International Law and has partially completed a Master of Teaching (Early Years) at ACU. She is also a solicitor admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
Natassia Chrysanthos is a journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald, where she covers education in NSW across the early childhood, school and university sectors. She has led reporting about teenage sexual assault this year after a petition started by Chanel Contos unveiled thousands of testimonies of sexual assault experienced by students in Sydney and around the country. Her recent Good Weekend feature, “Sex, schoolkids and where it all goes wrong”, was co-authored with David Leser and followed months of research and reporting on that issue. Natassia is a finalist in the Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year Awards for her coverage of the school petition, and was a finalist the year before for her coverage of the New Year’s Eve bushfire crisis. Before working at the Herald, Natassia worked in community media, university and non-government sectors.
Cristyn Davies is a Research Fellow in the Specialty of Child and Adolescent Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, and is a member of the Wellbeing, Health and Youth NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Adolescent Health. She is co-chair of the Human Rights Council of Australia. She has expertise in gender and sexuality; child and adolescent health and development; sexual and reproductive health; health education and Comprehensive Sexuality Education, Human Papillomavirus and HPV vaccination; vaccine delivery systems; and Knowledge Translation and Implementation Science.
Cristyn has published widely in the areas of her expertise. She is committed to using evidence-based research to close the gap between research and its translation into policy and practice.
PANELLISTS
Dorothy Hoddinott AO is one of Australia’s most widely recognised school educators. In 2014, she was awarded the Australian Human Rights Medal in recognition of her human rights advocacy for disadvantaged young people, particularly child asylum seekers and refugees. She taught English and ESL in schools in Australia, UK and Italy and has also worked in assessment and examinations and policy advice. She was Principal of Holroyd High School from 1995-2018.
Dorothy has a deep, life-long commitment to social justice and is a strong public advocate for the human rights of refugees and asylum seekers, and particularly disadvantaged children. In recognition of her work, she was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Sydney in 2006, and Officer of the Order of Australia in 2008. In 2012, she was awarded the Medal of the Australian College of Educators,
the first time the Medal had been awarded to a practising teacher. She was conferred Hon. D. Litt. by Western Sydney University in 2014. Dorothy was a Fellow of Senate of the University of Sydney 2010-2017, and has been Pro-Chancellor and Presiding Pro-Chancellor of the University since 2015. She was conferred Hon. D.Litt. by the University of Sydney in April 2021.
Baraa Omar, Humanitarian Scholar at UTS, Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Hons), Diploma of Professional Practice, second year
I attended Holroyd High School, after arriving from Syria in 2013. I’m really interested in community engagement and am committed to giving back to my community in the hope to see a more connected society. University has been great so far. When you are surrounded by great people and nice peers it makes everything easier and makes the challenges easier to overcome.
Baraa’s advice for new students: “Try to get involved and participate in as many UTS clubs and societies – it’s so important to take the opportunities that are out there and learn from each. It’s so important to attend all your lectures, there is so much learning and information that you get from your
lectures. Try not to miss these unless it’s out of your control.”
Kerry Robinson is a Professor, the Director of the Diversity and Human Rights Research Centre (DHRRC), and a member of Sexualities and Genders Research (SaGR) in the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University. Kerry’s research expertise includes: gender and sexuality studies; sexual harassment; gender and sexuality based violence; sexuality education; and sexual citizenship. Kerry is currently a chief investigator on an Australian Research Council Discovery project, titled: GenderMatters (with Associate Prof. Susanne Gannon) exploring gender equity in secondary schooling. Kerry has published widely in her expertise areas.
Belinda Smith, is Program Coordinator, Masters of Labour Law and Relations, University of Sydney. She has a particular interest in thinking creatively about how law might encourage and enable employers – specifically managers – to do more to ensure that their workplaces are safe, respectful places. In this respect, Belinda has written quite a lot about how poorly anti-discrimination laws operate to promote such proactive, preventative measures for workers and, more recently, about how other laws, such as work health and safety laws might be more useful in prompting workplaces to do more in this regard because they are written differently and impose positive, preventative obligations on employers. Belinda is well versed to talk about the role of employers (and managers within workplaces) in preventing sexual harassment and violence in workplaces.
PANELLISTS
Elisabeth Shaw is CEO of Relationships Australia (NSW). Her background as a clinical and counselling psychologist, executive and ethics consultant has led her to work in a range of NFP senior roles, as well as co-owning her own psychology centre in inner west Sydney. As a consultant to frontline services she has provided clinical supervision as well as led service reviews and design; she is an executive coach for managers and executives across sectors, taught in MBA and clinical masters programs in areas of business, clinical practice and professional ethics, and is a senior consultant at The Ethics Centre. She has published her work on a wide range of topics related to clinical practice in her specialisation of couple and
family therapy, best practice in supervision, and professional ethics. This has included a co-authored text entitled “Ethical Maturity in the Helping Professions: Managing Life and Work Decisions”. She serves on a number of Boards for Relationships Australia and is also Chair of the Board of Settlement Services International.
Stephen Zisserman develops and is involved with sexual and gendered violence prevention work aka Respectful Relationships at Western Sydney University. He aims to authentically embed the primary prevention of violence throughout the student and staff lifecycle, through training, advocacy, teaching and learning, strategy and campaigns. Stephen and his team are in a unique position to explore on-the-ground prevention work in one of the most culturally diverse regions in the world, with a nationally high proportion of first-in-family, First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse students and staff spread across 10 campuses. Previously, Stephen was a special needs and mainstream primary school teacher and later, school counsellor in Sydney and China. As a parent, Stephen does his best to lead by example and this includes embodied equity pre-birth.
USEFUL LINKS AND SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Respect@Work: Sexual Harassment National Inquiry Report (2020)
https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/publications/respectwork-sexual-harassment-national- inquiry-report 2020?mc_cid=1065707e3c&mc_eid=%5bUNIQID%5d&_ga=2.268466873.991045732.1614137707- 1890854507.1614137707
“Sexual harassment affects workplaces across Australia. So what can we do better?” By Bridget Juddhttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-01/preventing-sexual-harassment-workplace-reform/13187766
Preventing workplace sexual harassment guide https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/doc/preventing-workplace -sexual-harassment-guide
ILO Violence and Harassment Convention 2019 (No. 190)
https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C190
“Sex, schoolkids and where it all goes wrong,” Good Weekend By David Leser and Natassia Chrysanthos. MAY 15, 2021https://www.smh.com.au/national/sex-schoolkids-and-where-it-all-goes-wrong-20210312-p57a48.html
Robinson, K.H., Smith, E. & Davies, C. (2017) “Responsibilities, tensions and ways forward: parents’ perspectives on children’s sexuality education. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning,” 17(3): 333-347.
The Open Access link is: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14681811.2017.1301904 K.Robinson@westernsydney.edu.au
“Schoolgirls right to call for proper sex education,” Katrina Marson, The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 February 2021https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/schoolgirls-right-to-call-for-proper-sex-education-20210221-p574fh.html
PROGRAMME
9.00am REGISTRATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO COUNTRY WELCOME
10.00am-11.30am SESSION ONE
The case for comprehensive relationships and sexuality education (RSE): why it matters and what it should look like. Adopting a holistic approach by considering different perspectives?
Intro: Katrina Marson
Panellists: Kerry Robinson, Cristyn Davies, Andrea Christie–David, Stephen Zisserman, Dorothy Hoddinott
11.30am—11.45am MORNING TEA
11.45am—1.15pm SESSION TWO
Empowering young people in their education: talking with young people, not about them
- The importance of young voices in co-designing their education, especially when it comes to RSE; the valueof ethics education in recognizing the real power of young people’s own innate ethical sense of what’s rightor wrong and how it can influence behaviour
- Adopting a proactive approach: the role of parents and caregiversPanellists: Dorothy Hoddinott, Natassia Chrysanthos, Stephen Zisserman, Baraa Omar, Cristyn Davies, Elisabeth Shaw1.15pm—2.15pm LUNCH2.15pm—3.30pm Session THREE/RECOMMENDATIONSA rights-based approach: what are the opportunities in approaching relationships and sexuality education through a human rights framework?
- Can we find a right to RSE in existing rights, such as the rights of the child, the right to education, the right to health, disability rights, the right to live free from violence?
- How might it intersect with other rights – e.g. rights to freedom of religion, freedom of expression?
- What is the benefit of using a rights-based approach to ensure access to RSE? What are the limitations? Panellists: Belinda Smith, Dorothy Hoddinott, Kerry Robinson, Stephen Zisserman, Denise Beckwith, Maha Abdo3.3.30pm—4.00pm CLOSING REMARKS REFRESHMENTS