The South Australian Women’s Action Alliance, SAWAA, recently joined a coalition of Australian women’s and LGB groups in making a submission to the South Australian Parliament on that state’s inquiry into a potential human rights act. Our submission is submission no. 302.
The coalition consists of SAWAA, Australian Feminists for Women’s Rights (AF4WR), Coalition of Activist Lesbians (CoAL), and Women’s Rights Network Australia (WRNA) and came together out of concern that current interpretations of law are undermining women’s human rights and protections in South Australia.
The submission interrogated the effectiveness of current laws and mechanisms for protecting human rights in South Australia and suggested possible improvements to these mechanisms. In particular, we expressed our concerns that South Australia is failing to adequately protect women and girls where we are vulnerable because of our sex. Most notably, we are concerned about the adequacy of law and policy in SA to ensure single-sex spaces and services for women escaping domestic violence, as well as for women in prison, hospital wards, health care, and changing rooms. We are especially concerned about freedoms of association for lesbians and freedom of speech more generally for women to advocate for our rights.
We are careful to note that we are not referring to the rights of all South Australians to privacy and to live their lives free from discrimination in employment, education, and other domains that are the proper object of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 and the South Australian Equal Opportunities Act 1984. We support these rights and protections. Rather, our concerns relate to the conflict of rights that has arisen as a result of our institutions prioritising gender identity over sex-based protections and rights without proper safeguards in a range of new domains. This prioritisation, which has been implemented with little consultation, is eroding protections women previously fought for.
Read our full submission, below, which covers single-sex spaces and services; dignity and safety in healthcare; improving existing mechanisms to address current gaps in human rights protections; the rights of lesbians; freedoms of expression, association and peaceful assembly; participatory rights and duties; the principle of proportionality or a limitations clause; ratified international human rights instruments; and mandated periodic reviews of all human rights legislation.
Affiliation of Australian Women's Action Alliances 