Labour MP Kelvin Davis hasn’t done much training ahead of walking a half-marathon for 17 days, but says the pain will be worth it if it puts a stop to sexual violence. [Read more…]
Over $1 million from Marsden Fund allocated for rape law research
More than $1 million from a prestigious academic fund has been awarded for research into reform of the way the justice system treats rape survivors.
Two Victoria University scholars have been awarded about $1.15 million from the Marsden Fund, from a total pool of almost $56m.
Their separate three-year studies will explore rape reform and social myths around sexual violence….
Criminologist Associate Professor Jan Jordan has received $610,000 for her research paper exploring barriers to rape law reform….
Associate Professor Elisabeth McDonald, of Victoria’s law school, has also been awarded $540,000 for her study entitled: Rape myths as barriers to fair trial practices.
McDonald was a lead contributor to a Law Commission work on rape law reform recommendations. The Commission’s 2012 report recommended replacing the current adversarial system with an inquisitorial process.
Full story: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/10700697/Over-1-million-for-rape-law-research
SPCS revitalised campaign against gratuitous sexual violence in films – ignited censorship debate
Prior to its application to become a registered charity with the Charities Commission, the Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc. (SPCS) engaged in a “revitalised campaign” against gratuitous sexually explicit movies screened in New Zealand cinemas, focusing on those such as Baise-Moi (French = “Rape-Me”) which was scheduled as an opening show-piece in the now defunct Beck’s Incredible Film Festival (B.I.F.F.) directed by Mr Ant Timpson. The R18 classifications issued to this morally putrid film and others like the Japanese film Visitor Q, were appealed by the Society to the Film and Literature Board of Review, to test whether or not the Chief Censor Bill Hastings and his staff had correctly applied the censorship laws to safeguard the “public good”.
Both films were effectively shut out of Timpson’s B.I.F.F. and after protracted litigation through the courts, the Court of Appeal issued decisions upholding in large part the concerns raised by SPCS. The Society contended that the Chief Censor had well passed his “use-by date” as a competent censor, having become “desensitised” by excessive exposure to the injurious, corrupting and toxic impact of so many films containing explicit sexual content and gratuitous sexual violence he had had to view. The vast bulk of publications (films, videos, DVDs and magazines etc) he had “examined” over his lengthy career as a censor involved the degradation, dehumanisation and demeaning of women and are “injurious to the public good”. The Society’s concerns about the Chief Censor and his Deputy Ms Nicola McCully, were taken up by a number of MPs in the House of Representatives and eventually Hastings left the job.
Bill Hastings served as NZ’s tenth Chief Censor from October 1999 to July 2010. Prior to that he was Deputy and Acting Chief Censor from December 1998 to October 1999. He was a member of the Indecent Publications Tribunal from 1990 to 1994 and Deputy President of the Film and Literature Board of Review from 1995 to 1998. He played a key role as Deputy of that Board in issuing a highly controversial decision that banned the “talking heads” Living Word videos. This decision was subsequently overturned by the Court of Appeal and the videos were classified as “unrestricted”. The Board was forced to concede the obvious – the videos contained nothing that remotely came within the five censorship “jurisdictional gateways” of the censorship Act – involving “sex, horror, crime, or cruelty or violence” – the basis upon which a publication can be classified “objectionable”.
Download a high-resolution PDF version here.
Sexual assaults in Australia and New Zealand more than double world average
The rate of sexual assault in Australia and New Zealand is more than double the world average, according to a new report.
After several highly publicised rapes and murders of young women in India and South Africa, researchers from several countries decided to review and estimate prevalence of sexual violence against women in 56 countries.
The results, published in the UK medical journal The Lancet, found that 7.2 per cent of women aged 15 years or older reported being sexually assaulted by someone other than an intimate partner at least once in their lives. [Read more…]
Odd Future – LA rap group banned by Immigration NZ, deemed ‘a threat’ to NZ
The Los Angeles – based rap group Odd Future has been refused entry to New Zealand because it is “a potential threat to public order and the public interest”.
“Odd Future has been deemed to be a potential threat to public order and the public interest for several reasons, including incidents at past performances in which they have incited violence,” Immigration NZ said today.
A TV One News Report tonight states that the Human Rights Commissioner has backed the decision to ban the group (referred to in a Wikipedia entry as an “American hip hop collective”).
Stop Demand Foundation, a registered New Zealand charity, which is a lobby group against sexual violence, has been trying for some time to get Odd Future banned from this weekend’s Rapture 2014 hip-hop festival at Western Springs Stadium in Auckland, at which Eminem will be the main act, because of the group’s “rape and murder fantasy lyrics”.
The Stop Demand charity-lobby group (Reg. No. CC30599 – registered on 20/06/08), which has been putting pressure on [lobbying] Auckland Council, which owns Western Springs, urged [lobbied] it to consider its ethical, moral and social responsibilities in relation to the rap group and allegations that it incites sexual violence through its lyrics. The charity-lobby group members will be delighted that the Immigration NZ has banned all the group’s members from travelling to New Zealand, even though they were scheduled to appear at the forthcoming concert at Western Springs. [Read more…]