The main offenders

Facebook and Google are filled with

What is identity theft?
Identity theft is when someone steals
personal information such as: a name, date
of birth, address, drivers licence or even
bank details and social media passwords.
The human rights of privacy and the rights
to have own things are breached
when this crime is committed.
identities. They ask people questions and
to do surveys that most people would think
are harmless, but studies have proven that
a lot of the time these surveys are just to
gather data and to show people a lot of ads
relating to things they have recently
searched.

The effects of identity theft

Identity theft can have a devastating effect
on the victims. When someone
commits identity theft, they literally assume
identity. They can then do
any number of things in
name, including opening new credit
accounts or getting into a social media
account and stealing sensitive information.
Victims often feel unsafe, violated and
anxious. It can cause great financial loss Causes
and serious emotional distress which can
lead to psychological trauma. Identity theft is caused when someone gets
access to some else s identity via social
media, bank details.
Statistics
According to the Australian Institute of Steps to avoid
Criminology (AIC), the annual economic
Some simple steps can be taken
impact of identity crime exceeds $2 billion.
to reduce the risks of having personal
A survey by the AIC found that identity
information stolen or misused: securing
crime 1 in 4 Australians have been a victim mail boxes with a lock and make sure mail
of identity crime at some point in their lives. is cleared regularly. Shredding or
Most cases of identity theft is to attempt to destroying personal and financial papers
get access to money or to get other before throwing them away. Never give
personal information. An estimated away personal details such as: passwords,
126,300 persons in Australia were victims band details, Medicare information, social
of identity theft (or 0.7% of the population media accounts and other personal or
aged 15 and over). private details.
Punishment \
Identity theft is punishable by a
mandatory minimum
sentence of imprisonment for two years or
by imprisonment for five years if it relates to
a terrorism offense.

Personal opinion
As a personal recommendation, I believe
that as a country, we need to teach our
country and as many other people around
the world different ways to prevent having
their identities stolen. As a personal
opinion, I believe that the minimum
sentence for identity theft is far too short. It
should be raised from a minimum of two
years to a minimum of five years, stretching
to ten years, depending on the severity of
the crime. I think this because having your
identity stolen can ruin your life.
 Agnes Bissell

What is Sexual Violence Against

Women?
Sexual violence is any type
of sexual activity that you do not agree to,
including inappropriate touching such as;
vaginal, anal, or oral penetration and
sexual intercourse to which you are
violently forced to perform against your
will.
What About False Accusations?
False accusations are often perceived as
more common than they actually are. The
How are Women Effected by it? reality is, a man is more likely to be raped
then falsely accused, and that is less than
Studies show that one in five women (19 per
1/10 percent. Some people are becoming
cent) have experienced sexual violence at
more concerned about catching fake rape
some stage in their lives since the age of 15.
accusers rather then actual rapists. This has
Although men have and can also be victims
a tremendous effect on women who have
of sexual violence, women make up 9 out of
been raped and their choices to report.
10 rape case and sexual violence victims all
Although, yes, false accusations do
over the world.
happen, they make up only 2-8% of rapes -
the same amount as any other crime being
falsely accused onto someone. When you
put this next to the 98-92% of rapes that do
happen, the comparison is not close enough
to argue that they deserve the same
attention.

An extensive study into rape case attrition

concluded that 8%
not in fact accurate.

Home Office guidelines on classifying

them as such correctly applied (allowing
only those cases which could be coded
e included in
the final figure, and excluding those -
where the decision had been based on the

Here is a graph created by Sarah Beaulieu who launched The Enliven

Project in 2013 to bring the issue of sexual violence out of the closet.
figure.
What is being done about Violence against Women?
Preventing sexual violence requires addressing factors
at all levels of the social ecology the individual,
relational, community, and societal levels.
STOP SV: A Technical Package to Prevent
Sexual Violence pdf icon[2.85MB,
48Pages,508] covers strategies based on the best
available evidence and information to help
communities prevent and reduce sexual violence.
Many of the strategies focus on reducing the likelihood
that a person will engage in sexual violence. The
strategies and their corresponding approaches are
shown in the image below.
Here are some other programs designed in the
prevention of sexual violence and their
approaches;
Safe Datesexternal icon
Program designed to prevent the initiation
of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in
adolescent dating relationships
Shifting Boundariesexternal icon
Program designed to reduce dating violence
and sexual harassment among adolescents
Green Dot external icon
Bystander-based prevention program
designed to reduce sexual and other forms
of interpersonal violence perpetration and
victimization
Second Step: Student Success Through
Prevention (SS: SSTP)external icon
School-based program aimed at reducing
bullying, peer victimization, and other
problem behaviours
Coaching Boys Into Menexternal icon
Dating violence prevention program that
uses the relationships between high school
athletes and their coaches to change social
norms and behaviours.
Bringing in the Bystanderexternal icon
Bringing in the Bystander is a bystander
education and training program designed
for male and female college students.

Recommendations: References/ Further Reading:

https://www.ourresilience.org/what-you-need-to-
A main thing that needs to be considered with sexual violence against know/myths-and-facts/
woman is awareness. Many people over the world are uneducated
about how serious and impacting it is on women. Other, are not even https://www.rapecrisisscotland.org.uk/false-
allegations/
aware it goes on. Lack of awareness is actually very dangerous for
women, as back to the false accusation text about woman being too https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/sexualv
iolence/prevention.html
afraid to report sexual violence because of the massive attention on
those who falsely accused. If we spread more awareness about what https://www.google.com/search?q=stop+SV&tb
m=isch&ved=2ahUKEw
really goes on and the actual numbers, it would impact women into
feeling more comfortable and accepted to report sexual violence.
Bringing awareness to the issue will give us a bigger chance at
stopping the problem, as more and more rapist and sexual assaulters
will be caught and prevented from inflicting it onto anyone else.
Holly Larcombe
Human rights report
20/08/2020
Sweatshop workers
Issue
Bangladesh is home to approximately 4000 sweatshops, of which employ around 3.5million citizens. A sweatshop is a
factory, typically producing clothing garments, cotton, bricks, cocoa and coffee, which violates at least two labour laws.
Sweatshops have below standard wages, poor working conditions, and unreasonable hours of trade as well as employing
child workers. Sweatshop factories breach numerous human rights, detrimentally effecting the health and wellbeing of
workers as well as their quality of life. Although the owners of the factories are mostly at fault, some blame falls back

continue exploiting employees for profits.

Effects and significance of the issue

Sweatshops take advantage of the large magnitude of unskilled and unorganised citizens without employment, often
including children from low socioeconomic families. Manufacturing of this manner is illegal, however the lack of
government regulation and low socioeconomic status of the workers enables sweatshops to trade. Suburbs with limited
education, healthcare and food resources often create citizens more willing to work under the poor conditions of the
sweatshops.

Swea

The standard living wage in Bangladesh is 5'000 taka ($81.75 AUD) per month, which is the minimum wage required
to provide a family with food, shelter and public education. Sweatshop employees are paid 3'000 taka ($49.04 AUD)
per month, which is far below that required to provide for a family, yet alone other necessities such as healthcare.

Sweatshop factories breach multiple human rights, including:

All human beings are born free and equal in
dignity and rights.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel,
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment.
Everyone, without discrimination, has the right to
form and to join trade unions for the protection of
his/her interests.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure,
including reasonable limitation of working hours
and periodic holidays with pay.

Traditionally, women have been unable to work outside the

family home for wages. However, sweatshops, particularly
those producing garments, have given them the
opportunity to enter the working world, reducing their
exclusion from society. Whilst this is a positive change in
terms of reducing gender-based exclusion of women,
harassment and exploitation still occurs. Because of this,
the focus of campaigns addressing the issue should be on
making the industry more humane and sustainable for its
employees.
Holly Larcombe
Human rights report
20/08/2020

What is currently being done to address the issue?

Article 32 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 says that children should be protected from work which
interferes with their education or is harmful to their physical or mental health. However, in areas of poverty, children
who do not go to work face starvation. Children discharged from the workplace are left to find other means of income,
often turning to prostitution or crime or working for less pay in worse conditions. In order to successfully stop child
labour, poverty needs to be removed. Families in low socioeconomic areas cannot afford to send their children to school
if they are facing starvation due to poverty, therefore they depend on the additional income of their children. Although
legislation has made child labour illegal, stopping it in the organised employment sector, it cannot force poor children
to go to school, causing them to become unorganised workers in industries like sweatshops. The real issue regarding
child labour is how to make sure they attend school. To do this, the issue of poverty and lack of necessities in households
needs to be addressed.

There are several anti-sweatshop movements at large at present. One such movement is the Clean Clothes Campaign,
which is working to improve working conditions in the global garment industry. In order to discontinue the trading of
the sweatshop industry, consumers are encouraged to purchase sweatshop-free products when shopping, to buy locally,
second-hand or union-made and ask questions when buying from businesses regarding their production. However, this
will not fix the issue, as workers will seek other means of income - potentially in worse conditions to support their
families. These workers are not fazed by their conditions, they are sacrificing their human rights in order to meet the
requirements to live, and therefore they will only look for other ways to get money, which may be worse.

Recommendations
I believe that there are four main things that need to change in order to improve the sweatshop industry:

There needs to be more schools in suburbs, of which should provide vocational training such as building courses.
Education should be free to make it more accessible, which would help make compulsory schooling more
successful, particularly for children who work and are the only family member with an income, thus solely
supporting the household.

Children legally able to work, therefore over 14years, should also be provided with schooling facilities and
employers should reduce working hours so they can attend school.

Legislation should be enforced more strictly to prevent sweatshop trade from continuing.

Most importantly, the issues of poverty and helplessness need to be addressed, as unless workers have other ways
to feed and support their families it is unlikely efforts to remove unorganised employment will work.

References & Further Reading

War on Want. 2020. Sweatshops In Bangladesh. [online] Available at:
<https://waronwant.org/sweatshops-
bangladesh#:~:text=Search%20the%20site-
,Sweatshops%20in%20Bangladesh,the%20country's%20total%20export%2
0revenue.> [Accessed 31 July 2020].
Ilo.org. 2020. Working Conditions In Bangladesh (ILO In Bangladesh).
[online] Available at: <https://www.ilo.org/dhaka/Areasofwork/working-
conditions/lang--en/index.htm> [Accessed 4 August 2020].
Butler, S., 2020. Why Are Wages So Low For Garment Workers In
Bangladesh?. [online] the Guardian. Available at:
<https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/21/low-wages-garment-
workers-bangladesh-analysis> [Accessed 4 August 2020].
DoSomething.org. 2020. 11 Facts About Sweatshops. [online] Available at:
<https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-sweatshops>
[Accessed 10 August 2020].
Forester, J., 2020. Sweatshops Violate Human Rights; American Companies
At Fault. [online] The Collegian. Available at:
<https://www.kstatecollegian.com/2013/04/30/sweatshops-violate-human-
rights-american-companies-at-fault/> [Accessed 20 August 2020].
Khosla, N., 2020. The Ready-Made Garments Industry In Bangladesh: A
Means To Reducing Gender-Based Social Exclusion Of Women?. [online]
Virtual Commons - Bridgewater State University. Available at:
<http://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol11/iss1/18> [Accessed 20 August 2020].
 Human Rights Issue: Child Marriage
Mollie Viney

Issue
Child marriage is a legal marriage or informal union where one or both parties are children under the

marry before the age of 18 in some countries. More often than not, a younger girl is married to an older
boy or man. It can be found across Middle East to Latin America, South Asia to Europe. Child marriage
happens because of gender inequality and because it is believed that girls are inferior to men.

Impact
There is a huge impact on young child brides, because their childhood is taken away from them of a
young age, not being able to attend school and have a higher chance of being abused in the marriage.
Being married at a young age because of cultural or religious reason makes them for less empowered,
isolated and feel like they have less freedom. Child brides are usually never physically ready to have
that much responsibility to become a mother or a wife. The wives will usually face complications in
being pregnant and having the kid at such a young age, especially since the mother will not be attend
school and access to jobs they will most likely to live in poverty, so the child will have not a very good
upbringing.

every 2 seconds. It is estimated that there's 650 million girls and women that are alive today that were
married of a young age.

Figure 2 - This graph shows the ages of child brides

Gloria was one of a twelve million girls who married before the age of 18. Her testimony is one many
which demonstrate the tragic consequence which forced marriages can have on young women
throughout the world. Gloria being married was only to help her family survive poverty. Her stating " I
cried because I was too young to get married, I was filled with fear" That just proves how bad this
generation is, forcing young girls that are so scared to marry 35 year old men that they don't even know
to support to the family. The girls being married at a young age don't know the meaning of marriage
and they are getting the wrong idea of marriage, they believe that marriage is a forcible thing to support
the family or cultural reasons.

was 12 years old when I got married to a 35 year old man. They said that the man would

meaning of marriage, and I was filled with fear."

Gloria, aged 17
What is being done?
Some organisations, are working within communities and directly and focuses on communities to
reduce the prevalence and mitigate the harmful impacts of child marriage through educational and
behavioural change programmes.

Recommendations
Marriage between adults and children under the age of 16 should be illegal in all countries. Adults who
marry children should be put in prison. Girls should be given free education to help them get out of
poverty and be less likely to become a child bride.

References