Tag: AAWAA
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Surrogacy in Tasmania and the National Push for Abolition: Our Voice in the ALRC Review
Tasmania’s Surrogacy Act 2012 was designed with the best interests of the child in mind. It permits only altruistic (non-commercial) gestational surrogacy, requires written agreements, judicial oversight through parentage orders, and residency rules for both surrogates and intended parents. Yet even this tightly regulated framework cannot eliminate the inherent risks of physical, psychological and economic…
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Australia’s Quiet Pushback Against a UN Expert Defending Women’s Sex-Based Rights
In late 2025, Freedom of Information (FOI) disclosures revealed a deeply troubling episode: senior Australian officials quietly attempted to undermine Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls. Rather than publicly contesting her views, elements within the Australian government—including the Sex Discrimination Commissioner and the Department of Foreign Affairs and…
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Restoration of Sexed-Based Protections and Rights for Women and Girls – Letter to Katy Gallagher
Dear Minister Gallagher, Re: Female stakeholders demand urgent restoration of sexed-based protections and rights for women and girls in Australia We write as a coalition of independent feminist organisations who are direct and essential stakeholders in all matters impacting the rights, representation, and realities of us in Australia. Our coalition represents a cross-section of advocacy…
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AAWAA – Local Action Interview with Isla MacGregor
AAWAA brings to you Local Action — interviews with women Getting It Done across Australia. In this edition of Local Action, we talk to Isla MacGregor. Isla has been fighting the good fight for human rights for decades. She was abruptly dragged into this new wave of feminist activism and brings to it a wealth…
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A New National Settlement on Prostitution: It’s Time for Principled Leadership and Restoration — and a National Apology
AAWAA has been part of a coalition of Australian feminist organisations that has submitted a formal letter to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Women, advancing a substantive case for comprehensive national reform to prostitution law and requesting a National Apology for women and girls harmed and criminalised by past and present policies. A…
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Protect Women and Girls from Prostitution – Letter to PM Anthony Albanese and Minister Gallagher
Dear Prime Minister Albanese and Minister Gallagher, Re: Urgent need for a new national approach to prostitution law to protect women and girls, plus a call for a National Apology for all those exploited in prostitution We are a coalition of independent feminist organisations representing groups from across Australia and united in our persistent alarm…
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Australian Feminists Unite for Shadow Report to the United Nations Human Rights Council
Our coalition of independent feminist organisations has submitted its shadow report to the United Nations Human Rights Council as part of Australia’s fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR). In doing so we warn that recent laws and policies are undermining women’s sex-based rights, breaching obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination…
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Feminist Groups Demand a Voice in the ALRC’s Review of Surrogacy Laws
As members of a coalition of independent feminist organisations from across Australia, we have jointly submitted our response to the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) for its review of surrogacy laws. Our position is unequivocal: all forms of surrogacy constitute sex-based violence against women and girls and perpetuate systemic exploitation, and we maintain that only a universal…
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It’s time to re-evaluate the ABC’s ties with ACON – Letter to Kim Williams
A non-partisan coalition of feminist and LGB groups has written to Kim Williams, ABC Chair, to express our concerns about the ABC’s relationship with the advocacy group ACON. We are especially concerned that the ABC’s membership of ACON/Pride in Diversity and its participation in ACON’s Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI) compromises the ABC’s independence and undermines the…