Australia is failing to protect its female Aborigines from violence, which is aggravated by high levels of inequity, the UN said yesterday.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians rank near the bottom of every social and economic indicator, which exacerbates tension in communities of the world’s longest continuous civilization.
“They are 34 times more likely to be hospitalized as a result of domestic/family violence and up to 3.7 times more likely than other women to be victims of sexual violence,” UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women Dubravka Simonovic told a news conference in Canberra.
Simonovic said Aboriginal women were often caught in a cycle of violence, beginning in childhood.
Aboriginal children are about seven times more likely than non-Aboriginal children to be subjected to abuse or neglect and about 10 times more likely to be in out-of-home care, the UN said.
With a troubled upbringing, a disproportionately high number of Aboriginal women end up in prison, a figure exacerbated by government policies, most notably incarceration for unpaid fines, which Simonovic said affected Aboriginal people more than non-Aboriginal people.
The issue of the incarnation of Aboriginal women hit the headlines after the 2014 death of a women known only by her surname Dhu, after she was arrested for unpaid fines shortly after a domestic violence incident.
Despite complaining of pain, Dhu was denied adequate medical attention, a coroner in Western Australia State ruled late last year.
Critics of government policy say there is not enough funding to eradicate inequity.
“We need more funding for programs, especially providing culturally sensitive environments,” Swinburne University of Technology researcher Angela Spinney said.
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