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Domestic Violence Orders violate human rights | Bettina Arndt | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Domestic Violence Orders violate human rights
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so our next speaker is Professor Augusto
um Zimmerman um he is a former West
Australian law reform commissioner and
is the current professor and head of law
at the Sheridan Institute of higher
education in Western Australia I don't
have time to go through all of his
achievements and his Awards but they are
believe me uh quite an impressive
collection um he's a distinguished legal
scholar prolific contributor to the
National discourse on freedom of speech
and the rule of law and he has been a
consistent and long-term critic of
Australia's domestic violence laws which
he argues correctly in my view seriously
compromised the presumption of innocence
and the application of fundamental
principles of due process and natural
Justice he's received multiple Awards
but um one of which is an important one
was um his International role um so um
the paper that professor
proposing to present to us the talk he's
going to give is called domestic
violence orders violate human rights so
could I ask you all please to welcome for's
moment it's a a privilege to be here and
I must thank my friend Betina for this
opportunity and um it's something that
doesn't give me any excit excitement to
have to discuss these issues because I
had to unfortunately interact with the
victims I was indeed the laform
commission uh for five
years I'm really honored and delighted
to have this opportunity to uh comment
on on this subject and express my
feelings even about uh what can indeed
occur to innocent victims of the system
you can see by my my my accent that I'm
not from New South Wes you see that by
my accent that I'm from Western
Australia my accent is
really so what I have here is a short
paper just to make sure that I actually
address everything that needs to be
addressed so you please forgive me if
I'm not being very spontaneous but I
think the information must be given in a
proper manner and some accounts of the V
victims I will disclose then after 10
years and it will be published hopefully
in quadrant magazine I'm saying this
before I communicated this to the editor
but I hope he will be kind enough to
publish this
paper although Violence by women against
men is a phenomenon that has received
little attention in the media and in
government for nearly four decades
actually five I must say
the best research reveals that men are
also frequently
targeted since the
1980s more than 200 academic Studies
have demonstrated that despite the
common assertion most part of violence
is mutual and that the woman's
perpetration of violence is the
strongest predictor of her being herself a
a
victim there is a misleading feminine
narrative aimed at presenting domestic
VI violence as solely a male problem
thus placing all the blame of men as a collective
collective
group from the nation's media
reports public inquiries and official
campaigns one should be forgiven to
think that men are the sole perpetrators
of domestic violence however data keep
keeps mounting 50 years of research
which indicate that domestic violence
may be perpetrated by both men and women
against their
Partners about 10 years ago an official
letter by the Harvard Medical School
commented on the findings of a
comprehensive analysis of more than
11,000 American men and women aged 18 to
28 and this statement concluded and I quot
quot
now when the violence is
one-sided women were the perpetrators
about 70% of the
time men were more likely to be injured
in reciprocally violent relationships
25% then were women when the violence
was one-sided
20% that means both men and women agreed
that men were not more responsible than
women for intimate partner violence
the finds cannot be explained by men's
being ashamed to admit hitting women
because women agreed with men on this
point the Harvard Medical School
statement was based on a seminal work
published in the American Journal of
Public Health in
2007 written by four experts in the
field it seeks to examine the prevalence
of reciprocal that's to a and
nonreciprocal reciprocal domestic
violence and to determine where the
reciprocity is related to violence and
injury after analyzing the data which
contained information about domestic
violence reported by more than 11,000
respondents on
18,000 heterosexual relationships the
following conclusions were reached one a
woman's perpetration of violence is the
strongest predictor of her being a
victim of partner violence two among
relationships with no no reciprocal
violence women were reported to be the
perpetrator in the majority of
cases three women reported greater
perpetration of violence than men than
men did 30
34.8% against 11 11.4%
reciprocally the patterer abuse of state
of knowledge project is broadly regarded
as the most significant International
summary of the data available this is
undoubtedly the words largest and most
comprehensive research on domestic viol violence
violence summarizing
summarizing
1700 peer-reviewed studies and
Publishing the prestigious peerreview
Journal partner
abuse the results which are summarized
in a comprehensive
2,300 page review of the relevant research
research
literature notably identified higher
rates of female perpetrated domestic
violence than male perpetrated domestic violence
violence
21.6% across studies it was found that
40 43% of men and 41% of women reported
coercive abuse as for motivation the
authors of this literature review
concluded that men and women often
perpetrate domestic abuse from very similar
motives while domestic violence against
women is constantly highlighted by the
mass media domestic violence against men
is rarily reported
men who sustain domestic violence face
numerous obstacles when encountering the social
social
service these victims you suffer from a
complete lack of
support and there might be even the
assumption that they must be the
perpetrators to test the availability of
Social Service Providers to May victims
of domestic violence a melbourne-based
psychiatrist once once contacted the man
referral service run by the government of
of
Victoria this is how he's experienced
his uh interaction or that's how he
reported I rank then on one occasion in
relation to Mayo
victims both times I was told that if I
had dug deeper I would have discovered
that the victims were actually the
perpetrators the founding model is set
up to fit with the narrative about
gendered violence allowing funding to
only go to female victims and another to male
male
victims this means that some service
providers Embrace a radical feminist
narrative to domestic
violence for instance the referral
service contracted by the government of
New South Wales is on the record
claiming that we need to be cautious in
assuming that a man assessed by the police
police
is truly a victim we should not believe
that but that's the opposite as when a
woman makes such a
legation the information provided to B
to bed man is often predicated on the
assumption that every man must be the
perpetrator male help Seekers report
that their complaints are never taken
into consideration or
seriously yet the parteners allegations
are always given serious
fa some report experiences with their
abuse Partners misusing the court system
to block access between them and to make
it worse their Vic their children
actually or to file false allegations
with child welfare Welfare
Services it is also reported that some
men have stayed with their violent
female Partners to protect their
children from their partner as
violence these men are worried that if
they leave their violent wives the
system might still Grant custody of
their children to the
abuser to to their female partner who is
the abusive one although many men report
domestic abuse for the reasons above um
these uh these numbers are never these
numbers are never entirely clear or
accurate there is a widespread believe
that abuse can only happen to
women this prevents battered men from
coming forward due to a reasonable fear
that they are not going to be
believed for instance emergency
emergency clinics tend to ask only women
and not men about domestic violence
Origins for the
injuries this is so even after these
emergency clinics find that the men
admitted in hospital with injuries are a
violence in Australia thousands of
fathers have had the contact with their
children limited to a few hours and
often spending huge sums of uh on
lawyers fighting to be able to care for
the children overnight Across the Nation
thousands of very good people are
legally prevented from reconnecting with
their children and there have been told
in mediation sections or by divorc
lawyers that there is no hope of
overnight contact with
them add false accusations of domestic
violence and then the father will be
required to prove his innocence before
he is allowed within 100 meters of
distance to see the kids indeed the
restraining order even when based on
allegations that are
unsubstantiated is a powerful weapon in
the fight for primary custody and restricted
restricted
access so perhaps I now have to talk a
little bit about my experience as a l from
commissioner they were not very
pleasant but that I must say these
experiences were quite enlightening I
have learned a lot with with them and I
can talk a little bit and edly if I have
time but let's see how it goes a
domestic violence order is a restraining
order issued by a court that sets out
specific conditions that must be obeyed
preventing a per person from contacting
tracking or attempting to locate the
protected person and preventing a person
from being within a a certain distance
of the protected person the terms used
to identify dvos the domestic violence
ords defer across jurisdictions and if
not if I'm not wrong here it's called
apprehended domestic violence
order domestic violence orders are the
most broadly used legal response to
allegations of domestic
violence almost half 47% of
133,000 of all civil cases filed in the
magistrates court involved DeVos
while it's crucial that the legal system
protects all victims of domastic
violence at the same time one must
recognize that domestic violence
restraining ERS are occasionally sought
for collateral reasons for instance when
a person seeks such an order although
she's not truly a victim of
violence for years fathers groups have
complained that seal victims and
overzealous courts often misus DeVos
that should be used as a shield against
real authentic instances of domestic
violence many cases of domestic violence
have ended up in our courts where
allegations have been entirely
disproved and sometimes many years after
the alleged
offenders found themselves evicted from
their home alen ated from their children
arbitrarily arrested suffering
incommensurable damage to their personal
and professional reputation and financially
financially
bankrupted after facing huge Court
costes to defend themselves from false
and malicious
accusations the most uh cursory scrutiny
reveals that the alleged epidemic of
domestic violence is actually quite
fabric at none of the statistics
proposing to quantify the incidence of
domestic VI
violence are entirely based on
convictions through jury trials or even formal
formal
charges these accusations are based on
reports that are not necessarily
substantiated rather substantial
incentives are provided by government
founded interest groups and government
agencies for women to Manu
manufacture accusations and exaggerate in
in
incidents some members of the Australian
Judiciary have agreed that false claims
are often sought for coll collateral
reasons related to Family Court disputes
including child custody for instance a
survey of 38 me magistrates in
Queensland reveals that
74% agreed that dvos are often used for
tactical purposes related to family law
disputes likewise another survey of 68
magistrates from New South Wales
indicates that 90% of them agree that
DeVos are commonly sought as a tactical
device to Aid applicant with court
disputes and or to deprive former
partners of contact with their biological
biological
children some empirical studies indicate
that men who are accused of domestic
violence are constantly threatened with
lies during court
proceedings these important findings
show that men who fear being victimized
by false allegations of domestic
violence are fully justified in having
having such fears a major problem here
is how restraining orders are issued and
the grounds for which they can be made
there is a notorious lack of scrutiny
about the nature and substance of these
complaints of course while it's not
possible to know if every dvo is
legitimately applied some applications
are known to be grossly unmerited
unmerited
meritorious time is a possible sign that
someone is Seeking a dvo for reasons
other than concerned for physical
safety a Comm example is when after
initiating custody proceedings an
ethical lawyers instruct clients to
apply for a restraining order so as to
obain an upper hand at Family Court
proceedings according to David Kier a
retired judge from the federal Family
Court these orders have become a major
weapon in the war between parents who
children this strategy consists in the
ability to defame another person with no
need to provide evidence these
accusations can tear families apart can
tear families can tear families
apart but are based on the me
allegation of another person I have more
to say but I have only s minutes now
perhaps I should go back to what I have
promised to do to talk a little bit
about my role as a Lai form commissioner
in Western Australia and what happened to
to
me I served as a law reform
commissioner in Western Australia from
I don't like to talk so much about this
because I feel very
distressed I received many phone calls
from the
victims some of them
suicidal I just find it
unbelievable that anybody could support
such a
thing because these um laws that have
destroyed many people's lives and I feel
quite emotional about this I from CA of
people telling me that after contacting
me they would commit
suicide they have lost
everything how enough someone has the
courage to defend such a thing good people
people
children have taken their lives because of
of
this I Ser as a lot of f commission
commissioner in Western Australia from
to 2012 to
2017 during during this time my fellow
Commissioners and I conducted a comprehensive
comprehensive
review that ultimately led to the
enactment of the restraining orders and
related legislation Amendment Family
Violence violence act
2016 in December 2013 2013 our
commission published its discussion
paper presenting 53 specific propos
proposals for reform and raising 29
questions for discussion the paper fold
a comprehensive
consultation with more than 150
individuals expressing their concerns
about family and domestic violence the
commission ultimately received 43
written submissions and we conducted
additional official consultations to
resolve matters rising from these
submissions published in in June
2014 and entitled enhancing family and
domestic violence laws a final report
comprehensively addressed all the
effects of legislation dealing with
Family Violence our report explicitly
recommended among other things that such
laws should necessarily provide a fair
and just legal response to Family
Violence our recommendations were
considerably ignored by the government
the restraining orders and related
legislation Amendment
2016 in wa which received Royal assent
in on 29th of November
2016 updated the definition of domestic
violence and promoted um a new view of
domastic violence that extends to
normal interactions between pars more
specifically the new legislation
dangerously extended the Rel relaxation
of evidence rules that were available
for entering orders to final decisions
on the occasion the then attorney
general contended that a new Family
Violence order was designed to reduce
the honors of the
proof because that would be better to
deal with the matter and the police
minister of the day declared that and I
quote from her we are sending a message
to the courts that it would prefer to
her her on the side of the accuser and
ER on the side of granting such a
restraining order this woman is a
criminal because to make such a
statement is absolutely
outrageous so this is extremely
dangerous because it removes the
presumption of innocence and it assumes
that it is entirely acceptable to commit
mistakes on the side of the person who
makes an accusation the removal of
evidence erods the right to remain
innocent until proven guilty in our
final report the commission rejected these
these
moves noting that they were likely to
exacerbate the existing problem of
overuse and abuse of restraining orders
which are known to be used for tactical
purposes in the context especially of
family law
litigation the extension of the removal
of evidence even to a grant of final
restraining orders is particularly
abhorent this is totally against what
the commission recommended and I then
have to have very unpleasant
interactions with the den attorney
general I would like to just have a
piece been quiet life but then he
started to say that the changes were
based on my report and don't I don't
want to have blood in my hands of being
accused of being having such thing in my
hands so I had to speak out and I went
to the newspaper the journalist a
journalist from the Australian newspaper
contacted me asking if the these changes
were based on were based on our report
and my um comment was that this was a
choke This Is A
Lie he was not happy with my comments he
thinks that I work for him he doesn't
understand that a lot of Home commission
should have Independence to say whatever
he thinks it's appropriate that's why I
was appointed to be a commissioner
perhaps they committed a mistake to
appoint me but I was not there to serve
the government I was there to protect
the my community and the common good I
love you guys and then I started to see
these things happening on a daily basis
people calling me and doing these things
the Attorney General once called me and
said I need to talk to you as a matter
of urgency because you are not serving
the purposes of uh our agenda being
Advanced and he wanted the government
the Liberal Party to be reelected in
those days I was still a member of the
liberal party I was a senior vice
president of the liberal party in my
division and and they thought that I was
compromising the prospects of the party
to be returned and then he called me
saying I want to have a conversation a
very serious conversation with you and I
said look I'm not available for you this
week I have to pick up my kids from
school tomorrow and I have promised to
have some drinks with some of my friends
you have to wait about a month or so uh
I'll give you the time I'll give you the
time and and just to make sure that I
can put this PL this man in his place he
actually told me that I should to
reconsider my role as a commissioner
just for trying to do the right thing
and then I told him look I think you
have to reconsider your role as an
attorney general because you are not
properly qualified for the job you are
going to undermine je Pro further
undermine je process of law and you know
after this uh it's such a traumatic
terrible thing that I now write about
other subjects and uh due to this uh
experience of people calling me suicidal
people losing everything having the bank
accounts exploded the the stories are
quite similar actually of total
obliteration of a person's lives and you
think that could be um perhaps a person
who is not equipped or qualified enough
to be able to defend himself but these
are law professors have becoming the
victims these are barers BEC indiv
everybody can be victimized by this
isn't that a terrible situation in this
country that a perfect innocent person
can have his whole life utterly and
completely obliterated just on the basis
of a false accusation how enough a human
being would have the courage to defend
such a thing I just it is actually
perhaps demonstration that how evil evil
some people can be and I promise you God
willing that they continue to speak out
God bless you and protect you and
promise that they continue to fight good
fight thank you very much and God bless
you thank you very much thank you thank you
you thank
thank
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