Equality Rights Alliance

22 January

Fair Agenda is currently running a petition in response to the recently released Workplace Gender Equality Reporting- Summary of Consultations. This report comes after a series of consultations with business and community stakeholders on the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.

The Gender Reporting Under Threat petition calls for the continuation and protection of the WGEA Act and associated reporting requirements. You can sign and share the petition here. 

8 December

What is the Universal Periodic Review?

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a mechanism of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) that involves a review of the human rights records of all UN member States. 

How can you get involved?

The UPR process involves the Australian government preparing a national report on its human rights progress. This report is complemented by a ‘shadow’ report prepared partly by the Australian Human Rights Commission and partly by Australian NGOs. That's where you come in. The 'shadow' report process is currently underway with consultations and surveys so you can have your say. Keep up to date with the #ausUPR hashtag. 

Making the UPR work for women

Equality Rights Alliance is leading an advisory group of organisations interested in gender equality to prepare a section on gender equality for the NGO report. We need your help to identify which issues should be prioritised in the report. You can do this by taking our UPR Gender Consultation survey. 

2 December

Millions of people throughout the world will be celebrating this year's International Day of People with Disability (I – Day) on Wednesday, 3 December 2014. As a systemic advocacy and peer support organisation run by women with disabilities for women with disabilities, WWDACT will be joining these celebrations. This year, the theme of I-Day is employment. 

There are approximately 31,500 women with disabilities in the ACT and hundreds of thousands more nationally. Major barriers to women with disabilities participating in employment include discrimination, lack of confidence, stigma and limited flexible supportive work arrangements and opportunities.

On Tuesday, 2 December WWDACT will be releasing employment facts on women with disabilities in the ACT and nationally. This release will occur hourly via the WWDACT Facebook page. The Women's Centre for Health Matters will also be releasing these facts on their website www.wchm.org.au) on I-Day itself. 

25 November

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency has launched the inaugural results of standardised gender reporting, covering the period 1 April 2013- 31 March 2014. You can have a look at the data with WGEA's data explorer. The results are contained in the Australia's Gender Equality Scorecard report. 

Some of the key findings from the research:

• Women comprise only 26.1% of key management personnel (KMP) positions, and 17.3% of chief executive officers/Australian head of business positions. 
• One-third (33.5%) of employers have no KMPs who are women, and 31.3% of organisations have no other executives/general managers who are women.
• Less than one in 10 organisations have set a target to lift the number of women around the boardroom table despite only 23.7% of directorships being held by women, and just 12% of chairs being women. 
• Only 13.6% of employers have a strategy for flexible working and only 13.2% of employers have a strategy to support employees with family or caring responsibilities. 
• Less than one in five employers have a policy about supporting employees experiencing domestic violence. 

19 November

ANROWS is currently recruiting a Research Manager (temporary maternity leave cover for up to 12 months) to lead the ongoing development and implementation of the ANROWS research and knowledge translation and exchange functions. 

Applications close at midnight on Wednesday 3 December, 2014. The information package contains details on key responsibilities, selection criteria, salary and conditions, as well as a contact for further information.  

19 November

Nominations for the Sustaining Women's Empowerment in Communicaties and Organisations (SWECO) Award are open until the 29th of November. If you know a woman who deserves to be recognised for her contribution to sustaining women's empowerment in the community or in an organisation, be sure to nominate her for a SWECO.

More information on the nominations process and categories is available here. 

31 October

Australia's upcoming review by the UN Human Rights Council provides an important opportunity for Australian NGOs to encourage and influence the Australian Government to improve protection and promotion of human rights and fulfil its international obligations. The UPR provides a number of opportunities for NGO involvement.  A number of stakehodlers are working to co-ordinate a Joint NGO Report on behalf of a large coalition of NGOs representing the breadth of civil society in Australia. Experience has shown that we get better outcomes when we coordinate report-writing and advocacy with UN mechanisms.  

As part of this, a number of consultations are taking place across Australia. 

23 October 

The Office for Women is now calling for applications from individuals and representatives of non-government organisations who are interested in being considered for inclusion as an NGO delegate on the official Australian Government delegation to the 59th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. APPLICATIONS CLOSE SUNDAY 2 NOVEMBER. 

For more information on how to apply, see the application pack.