WOMEN’S RIGHTS

JST318 –Human Rights and

Social Justice
Module 4
As discussed by Neyroud and Beckley, the HR legislation and UN Code of
Conduct do not make it clear as to how this can be put in practice during day-to-
day decision making. This is where the PLAN Framework comes in…
Any limitation of others’ rights by police must fulfil all four requirements!
Let’s consider how PLAN applies to the example of Gary Leeson, who was strip
searched by the NSW Police as per the article provided.
 EVALUATION AGAINST PLAN

• Proportionality – this asks us to question the limitations on the person’s rights

(ie. Being detained and forced to remove clothes) in balance with the police
actions (searching to find illicit drugs likely amounting to a Summary offence).
Consider the person’s description of feeling ‘humiliated’ and ‘bullied’.
• Legality – Was the police action in limiting his rights legal? Even if drugs were
present, police must establish reasonable suspicion to a court to justify the
search. They then must also establish further reasonable suspicion to do the strip
search (which is an extension of a normal search) See LEPRA.
• Accountability – How are the police held to account in this situation? The most
obvious is the courts, perhaps if the person pleads not guilty or a later civil
proceeding. There is also police management (misconduct), LECC and the
media/community via the article you have read.
• Necessity – This is a more subjective measure but asks us to consider how
necessary it was for police to limit the person’s rights. Ask if we as a society
should tolerate this act in order to locate a small quantity of a drug? In other
words, what would be the consequences to society if police didn’t do this?
 THIS WEEK

1) Review Assessment 1
2) Understand gender-based inequality
3) Discuss DV & rape culture
4) Examine women as offenders
5) Look at women in the police force
 ASSESSMENT 1

ONLINE QUIZ
•Answer 20 multiple-choice questions covering the content of
modules 1, 2, and 3.
•You will have 40 minutes to complete the test.
•The test will be open from midnight Thursday to 11:59pm
Monday.
•You can only sit the test once.
•My suggestion is to work through the easy questions and return
to work on the difficult ones to ensure you maximise points.
• “The test of a modern, professional police force concerns
not only how police deal with women who might have
been victims of crime or may have themselves
committed a crime. The test is also about the way police
agencies treat women who are themselves police officers”
(Commonwealth Manual on HR Training for Police, p.
125).
 GENDER INEQUALITY

Required reading: Australian Human Rights Commission

(2018). Face the Facts: Gender Equality.

What fact surprised you most?

 ETHICS AND WOMEN

Feminism
The notion that society is structured
according to a male-centred
perspective (patriarchal).

Some questions feminists ask:

1. Are “ feminine” traits biological or
a they rather the product of social
conditioning? (An example of this
is the policing role)
2. Do men and women abide by the
same ethical values?
 MALE VS. FEMALE VALUES

 Man  individualism  justice

 Woman  interdependence  care

 Society fosters individualism (“male” value), and overlooks the

important dimension of inter-dependence and reciprocal care

 e.g., female exploitation, no maternity leave, etc.

 LEGISLATION AGAINST DISCRIMINATION AND
VIOLENCE

 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of

Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

 "...any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the

basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or
nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by
women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of
equality of men and women, of human rights and
fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social,
cultural, civil or any other field”
 THE USA IS THE ONLY DEVELOPED NATION THAT
DID NOT RATIFY THE CEDAW

Concerned Women for America criticise CEDAW.

•negates family law and undermine traditional family values by redefining the
family
•force the U.S. to pay men and women the same for "work of equal value" thus
going against our free-market system
•ensures access to abortion services and contraception
•creates a possible 'back door' for feminists
•allows same-sex marriage
•legalizes prostitution
•promotes gender re-education
•negates parental rights
•undermines the sovereignty of the U.S.
SEX DISCRIMINATION ACT 1984

• Promote equality
• Eliminate discrimination on the
basis of sex, marital status or
pregnancy and, with respect to
dismissals, family
responsibilities
• Eliminate sexual harassment at
work
 DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

There is no single agreed upon

definition of DV.
Key questions:
1) Does DV affect only 2 people in
an intimate relationship who live
together?
2) Does it involve only physical
violence?

E.g., Tasmania considers family violence only in the

context of spouse/partner relationship
The Commonwealth Family Law Act 1975 defines “family
violence” as
•Violent, threatening or other behaviour by a person that coerces or
controls a member of the person’s family, or causes the family
member to be fearful,
• withholding financial support,
• preventing contact with friends and family,
• stalking  Crimes (Domestic & Personal Violence) Act 2007,
NSW (not all jurisdictions see stalking as DV)
 ABS PERSONAL SAFETY SURVEY

• Conducted in 2012, it is the only consistent national survey on

domestic violence victims
• Around 17,000 people, aged 18 and over, were asked, in
private, about their experience of violence since the age of 15
• One in four women experienced at least one incident of
violence from an intimate partner since the age of 15
• One problem is that it looked only at number of victims, not at
the number of incidents of DV
• Some groups, particularly First Nations people, disabled and
those from non-English speaking backgrounds were under-
represented – i.e. the DV rate might be higher than what these
stats say
 ROSIE BATTY

• In February 2014 her 11-year-old son,

Luke, was killed by his father at cricket
practice in Tyabb VIC. This occurred after
a long history of domestic violence at the
hands of her partner, Greg Anderson.
• Became an outspoken campaigner against
family violence. But despite her
campaign, there are few resources
available to women fleeing domestic
violence.
Australian of the Year 2015
• Her experience was instrumental to the
establishment of the VIC Royal
Commission into Family Violence (2016).
 RAPE CULTURE
• Rape = non consensual sex
• “Rape Culture”  a term coined by feminists in the
United States in the 1970’s. It was designed to show
the ways in which society blamed victims of sexual
assault and normalized male sexual violence.
 NATIONAL COMMUNITY ATTITUDES
TOWARDS VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
(NCAS) 2013 SURVEY

• Involved approximately 13,000 men and women from across Australia. It

included Indigenous Australians, people from culturally diverse
communities and some 16- and 17-year old respondents.
• One in six agreed with the deplorable notion that women say “no” when
they mean “yes”. One in ten endorsed the view that if a woman doesn’t
physically resist, even if protesting verbally, then it isn’t really rape.
Slightly more (12%) agreed that if a woman goes to a room alone with a
man at a party, it is her fault if she is raped.
• More than one in three (38%) Australians holds the attitude that a lot of
times women who say they were raped had led the man on and later had
regrets.

CONSENT IS EVERYTHING.
DISMISSAL OF RAPE VICTIMS

• In 1999, an Italian court ruled that a woman

could not have been raped because she was
wearing tight jeans.
• In 2018, an Irish court acquitted a 28 year-old
male who raped a 17 year-old. Evidence used
included that she was wearing a black lace
thong.

• In 2016, a Stanford University student who

had sex with a woman while she was
unconscious (up to 14 years of imprisonment)
was sentenced to 6 months and only served 3.
The judge said prison would be “too harsh”,
and the boy’s father commented that prison
would be “a steep price to pay for 20 minutes
of action”.
 WOMEN IN PRISON
At Sept. 2021, men accounted
for 92% of all prisoners, and
women the remaining 8% (ABS).
• The vast majority of imprisoned
women have committed minor,
non-violent offences.
• The few serious violent crimes
are usually committed against
violent partners.
• Women in prison
overwhelmingly came from
disadvantaged backgrounds.
E.g., 85% are victims of abuse.
• In QLD, 89% of female
prisoners report having been
sexually abused (37% before age
5).
 FEMALE PRISON
POPULATION

• The female prison population increased 64% between 2009 and 2019,
while the male prison population grew by 45%.
• 60% of women are first-time offenders (vs. 2% of male prisoners).
Many are either in remand or have breached parole (often minor parole
violations).

• Indigenous women are the fastest growing cohort of prisoners (more

than Indigenous men)  2.2% of population, 34% of prison population.
• Many low-level crimes, that typically go undetected in non-Indigenous
communities, result in charges for women living in Indigenous
communities  over-policing.
UN BANGKOK RULES

Adopted by the UN General

Assembly in December 2010
(Australia is a signatory). It
supplements the existing
international standards on the
treatment of prisoners,
particularly the Standard
Minimum Rules for the
Treatment of Prisoners, which
applies to all prisoners regardless
of gender.

Bangkok Rules Summary

 UN BANGKOK RULES
• Comprises 70 principles
• Against the idea that men and women
should be treated equally
• Aims for minimising the incarceration
of women
• “Judges should approach sentencing a
woman to prison as exceptional”
• “Judges can approach sentencing
differently when the offender is a
woman”
• Prison is usually an ineffective, and
often damaging, solution to women
offending, hindering their social
reintegration and ability to live
productive and law-abiding lives
following release.
• One example of a gender-sensitive
alternative to prison is counselling
services with on‑site childcare
facilities. This provides a solution
for women offenders who are
mothers, enabling them to deal
with the root causes of criminal
behaviour whilst continuing to care
for their children.
 WOMEN AS OFFENDERS

International standards provide that women

detainees are to be extended special measures
of protection. Such measures include:
• Only interrogated or detained under
supervision of female police officers
• Supervised and searched by female
officers
• Detained separately from male detainees
• Specialised medical facilities
• Special measures for child-care and
treatment during pregnancy

"
 WOMEN IN POLICING
UN Code of Conduct for Law
Enforcement Officials:
Law enforcement agencies shall
not discriminate against women
in recruitment, hiring, training,
assignment, promotion, salary or
career and administrative
matters.

Law enforcement agencies shall

recruit sufficient numbers of
women to ensure fair community
representation and the protection
of the rights of female suspects,
arrestees and detainees.
 TOO MANY FEMALE POLICE
OFFICERS?
Former assistant commissioner Noel
Ashby questioned Victoria Police's
policies of seeking equal numbers of
men and women in the force and of
bringing in older recruits.
He argued that gender balance and age
policies could lead to a drain of officers
within seven to 10 years…
“It's a fact that we don't keep women as
long. And that could mean a serious
further downstream problem in
staffing”
“That is also an issue for young mums
because they don't want to be away
from their kids”
 WOMEN IN THE POLICE CONT.

 Is policing as male profession?

 How has the role of women police officers
reflected changing societal norms?
 What are the implications for women’s rights
generally (by having more women police)?
 NEXT WEEK

Children and Young People

Readings:
•Chapter 9: "Vulnerable Groups: Children". Commonwealth
Manual on Human Rights Training for Police
•Dwyer, A. (2017). Embodying Youthful Vulnerabilities and
Policing Public Space. In N. Asquith, I. Bartkowiak-Theron & K.
Roberts, Policing Encounters with Vulnerability (pp. 47-70),
Palgrave McMillan (Ebook)

Don’t forget to complete to complete Assessment One!

Email: lspencer@csu.edu.au