NZFVC Quick Reads: 5 April 2024

NZFVC Quick Reads: 5 April 2024

Welcome to our Quick Reads format. Each week we share selected news bites relevant to family violence and sexual violence in Aotearoa. See all past NZFVC Quick reads.

ACC’s new Sensitive Claims Service contract out for tender

ACC’s new Sensitive Claims Service contract, coming into effect on 1 December 2024, is now out for tender. The Sensitive Claims Service provides fully funded support, treatment, and assessment services for survivors of sexual abuse and assault. ‘Suppliers’ and ‘Named Service Providers’ are able to apply now but applications remain closed to ‘Service Provider’ until 20 May 2024. Descriptions of these categories as well as information on how to apply can be found on the How to apply for the new Sensitive Claims Service contract webpage. Applications must be in by 5pm on: 17 May 2024 for large suppliers; 24 May 2024 for medium suppliers; 31 May 2024 for small suppliers; and 2 August 2024 for named service providers. ACC are also hosting online briefing sessions about the tender on 18 and 26 April 2024. 

Submissions open on Corrections (Victim Protection) Amendment Bill 

Public submissions are open for the Corrections (Victim Protection) Amendment Bill. The closing date for submissions is midnight 6 May 2024. This bill proposes to create an on obligation for the Chief Executive of the Department of Corrections and prison managers to protect those who are subject to a protection order and victims of crime from contact from prisoners. The bill would require Corrections to put in place arrangements to make sure that victims and others who are subject to protection orders under the Family Violence Act 2018 are protected from unwanted communications with prisoners. The above bill differs from the Corrections Amendment Bill which is also currently at select committee. For more on this see our recent news story. 

New Framework and Assessment Tool for supporting people with intellectual disabilities online

The Digital Citizens Framework (2023) and its accompanying set of tools were designed by Hōhepa Canterbury to support people with intellectual disabilities and their families, support teams, and educators to access the internet safely and achieve meaningful digital citizenship. Hōhepa Canterbury is a vibrant community of people with intellectual disabilities encouraging people to live fully engaged lives. The Digital Citizens Framework and its tools can assist people with intellectual disabilities, and their family and support teams, to evaluate their existing knowledge and identify learning opportunities and areas where they may need additional support. The Framework and the related tools, alongside their EasyRead versions, can be found on the webpage Supporting People With Intellectual Disabilities. 

2023 Digital Violent Extremism Transparency Report published

Te Tari Taiwhenua | Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) have released their 2023 Digital Violent Extremism Transparency Report (2023). The purpose of this report is to show the public what the DIA is doing to address harm from online violent extremism. Some of the report’s key findings, which can be also found in the DIA media release, were a 25% increase in URL referrals being made to the DIA regarding online violent extremism, with X/Twitter, Telegram, and TikTok being the most common sources. The report also stated that the most commonly reported ideology type was ‘Identity motivated’, specifically “white-identity”. For a summary of the report, see 1News’ coverage.

UN CEDAW committee seeking feedback on women's participation in decision making

The committee for the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (UN CEDAW) is developing a new General Recommendation (GR 40) to provide guidance on reaching equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems in both the public and private sectors. Comments have been invited on the draft general recommendation and must be in by 18 April 2024. Interested parties should submit their comments in a word document to ohchr-cedaw@un.org, with the subject line "Draft General Recommendation on EIRWDMS".