As we mark this year's 16 Days of Activism, I affirm from experience that militarised violence does devastate any chance of peace in the home. The strong link between ending violence against women and ending wars was restated for me, as I watched the latest Israeli military Operation “Pillar of Defence” in the last two weeks.

Australia is usually seen as a progressive society, with an excellent reputation for upholding United Nations' Treaties. However, over the last decade there have been a number of changes taking place that have tended to 'politicise' situations and turn issues such as asylum seekers into security threats and a greater willingness to participate in wars in countries not necessarily seen as a threat by the general population (e.g.

DR Congo has a bloody history of colonisation and slavery, and its current situation is characterised by extremely grave violations of human rights. The liberation in the 1960s has been followed by political struggles, dictatorship, poor distribution of the country's wealth, armed conflict between different fractions of the national army and guerilla groups, conflict related systematic rape and corruption.

The massive amounts of violence perpetrated against women are a blatant violation of human rights and our WILPF members are citizens to countries where armed violence against women takes place daily. One of the main questions we ask here at Reaching Critical Will and WILPF International is, why are women's rights and security so neglected at the local, national, and international levels?

For millions of Burma's women, especially women of ethnic and religious minorities, life has become just that much more bizarre and dangerous in the past 18 months.

Millions of people, in particular women, are affected daily by direct and indirect consequences of use, production, stockpiling and sales of weapons. These consequences come from all types of weapons, from nuclear weapons and other WMDs, to conventional weapons and explosive remnants of war, and most significantly, small arms and light weapons. The Arms trade is big business and weapons flow in and out of countries uncontrollably.

Subjugating women of the enemy or of ‘the other', through sexual violence is a commonly used tactic, which implies that the women are no more than chattel. This is as much true of inter-State Conflicts as of intra-State conflicts. Yet what was recently witnessed in India in the recent genocidal attacks by Hindus against Muslims in 2002 passes all belief.

Moderated Panel Discussion - Violence Against Women, From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World

International Women's Development Agency

Thursday, November 29, 2012 from 7:30 AM to 8:30 AM
Melbourne, Victoria

This year, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women with a focus on the impact of ongoing conflicts and natural disasters on violence against women.

Asia Pacific Women's Watch (APWW) is a regional network representing voices from across the five sub-regions of Asia and the Pacific. APWW welcomes the priority theme for the fifty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women, “Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls'.