Action Plan for Change

RUNNING HEAD: Action Plan for Change 1
Action Plan for Change
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Action Plan for Change 2
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Action Plan 4
Guiding Principles 5
Governance structures 5
Legislation and policy reviews5
Community involvement 5
Summary 4
References 4

Action Plan for Change 3
Introduction
Domestic violence has become a raging issue affecting millions around the world. Eradiating a
serious social issue like domestic, sexual and family violence against women requires a
sustainable and focused approach not just by the government and legislation, but also active
collaboration and participation of the community as a whole. With respect to policy changes for
domestic and family violence against women specifically in Australia, the most important
recommendation is to subject regional and international policies to greater flexibility in order to
implement them for addressing new and emerging issues (Healey, 2017). Domestic violence
takes place in varied forms. In Australia, considering the mix of natives, Aboriginal and
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, domestic violence has been segregated into
domestic violence, sexual, violence, and family violence. The National Plan of Australia
identifies sexual and domestic violence against women on the basis of three aspects to secure
women across all groups of people living in the country. However, the most common type of
violence in Australia is domestic violence, and the same is referred to as family violence for the
Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander groups (COAG, 2010).
In a survey conducted on 1400 Australian women highlighted the root and underlying causes of
violence embedded in the domestic community. With respect to violence, it was found that at
least nine out of 10 women get harassed publicly on the streets, almost 87 percent of Australian
women have suffered from domestic or sexual violence from their partners, and almost 90
percent of the women have changed their attitudes and behavior owing to their personal safety in
the country (ABS, 2013). This report includes a detailed action plan framework that can
necessitate reducing violence against women in the next 10 years.

Action Plan for Change 4
Action Plan-
1. Guiding Principles
The first and foremost guiding principles for changing public policies for greater transformation
and effectiveness are by formatting a human rights approach. It is important to first realize that
any kind of violence against women is a violation of human rights, and thus, policies framed
must focus on a human rights approach for a collective good. Also, regional policies must be
taken into consideration from international norms and treaties. This does not limit to exercising
and defining policies within regional/state legislation but provides a broader and international
context to such policies. For example, the Plan of Action Supporting the Prevention of Domestic
Violence Act (2007) in Sri Lanka defines violence against women by deriving the definition
from the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993) (Jewkes, Flood and
Lang, 2015). This is because connecting national plans to human rights interests and policies can
help governments to address the problem in an international context and makes governments
more accountable to international bodies and policies. International treaties such as the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) can
serve as a crucial framework to form public policies that can protect women from all kinds of
violence in the country (Healey, 2017).
From protecting the needs and respecting the rights of those being harassed in whichever form, a
human rights approach connecting international policies and framework can help develop,
implement and monitor action plans effectively (De Marchi, Lucertini and Tsoukias, 2016).
 A human rights approach can be adopted by focusing on the following policy
challenges: