Monday, May 24, 2010

Demand a Public Inquiry into the Prejudice and Discrimination against Indian Mothers and Their Children and those in other Ethnic Minority Groups, and of the Racism and Sexism which is Occurring in the Family Courts of Australia

     
[image is from here]

AND MOTHERS OF COLOR 
ARE WOMEN [HUMAN] TOO!

What follows next is an excerpt from what comes later in this post. This is the story of an Indian mother, from the National Peak Body for Safety and protection of Parents and Children. (Their website is here: www.safety4parentsandkids.org.au.)
Throughout my pregnancy with my daughter, my partner took no interest in our child and I was left to care for my daughter in her early years, as a natural process. However her father has been able to use the Court and its processes against me by making false accusations against me alleging that I was abusing our daughter and despite there being no evidence whatsoever to support his false allegations.

The Court however gave sympathy to him as he was able to gain supportive testimony from his white friends. This was a cruel irony as it was the father who had abused the child, after years years of ill-treating and abusing me within the relationship and he had left bruises on me and my child’s body, with fingerprint marks on her body, and has used my daughter as a weapon against me, by taking her to various people, privately and making her say or do things to denigrate and dehumanize me.

The Courts went against the advice of a family report writer that the child will be at risk of abuse in her father’s care.

If I can speak like an Indian, then he made me look like a second class citizen by his manipulation and deceit of some of the professionals who are not held accountable due to there being immunity for them in the Family Law Act.

When my daughter was a baby we escaped from his violence towards us both to a Women’s refuge, and got counseling for our sufferings and traumas. I was hit in the stomach during the pregnancy, and the police documented this, but then I was told not to mention this in the Family Court, as the Judges do not want to hear about domestic violence or abuse of children in such Courts despite the evidence of the abuse. And Judges take retaliatory measures against mothers who raise such issues.

At issue is how racism and misogyny, colonialism and classism, and other systems of oppression of women and girls specifically, all conspire against mothers of color who are mistreated, abused, discriminated against, and betrayed by white male supremacist courts and criminal justice systems. The effort is always underway to destroy relationships between mothers and the children they wish to raise in safety and in peace. Usually, it is the men and men's laws in these women's and girls' lives who seek to destroy the bonds by destroying either or all of the females. Too often, governing authorities conspire with the men to violate the human rights of women and girls, mothers and daughters. This is a global problem, but this one story is about a woman and her daughter struggling to be reunited as they wish. Please read it with an open heart and support her efforts in any way you can.

I have copied and pasted the following, sent to me by email, in full support of Indian and other women of color in Australia and elsewhere who are in need of human rights, and of having their human rights affirmed and supported by Australian and International Human Rights Groups, all relevant governments, policy-makers, social service agencies, and by humanity in general.

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Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you to seek your help as I feel my daughter and I are suffering racial and sexual prejudice and discrimination in the Family Law Courts of Australia under the Family Law Act 1975.

I am of direct Indian heritage and was born in Fiji and my daughter shares my cultural and ethnic inheritance, although her father and my former partner is Caucasian Australian Nationality.

I was born in a good Indian family in Fiji, my great grandparents having been taken there by British under the indentured labor system. They often complained of the abuse they had suffered from the British. In such terms as described in this document, I feel that I am now re-living the torture and trauma in Australia and its “Family” laws. Such laws are now giving preference and paramountcy to the rights of fathers after separation and such preferential treatment is rigidly administered by the Family Courts. The State Government systems cannot intervene effectively and in many instances choose not to interfere. Children have died and mothers murdered as a result of these complexities that have existed in the history of Australian laws, agreements and the constitution, leaving vulnerable mothers and voiceless children abused from both systems, with no one assuming any responsibility.

My parents weren’t wealthy, but managed to raise ten children, and prioritized education, and sent me to a prestigious private girls’ boarding school, where I assumed a number of leadership roles. My parents did not hit us or abuse us, and taught us to be good kids and citizens to pursue our dreams. All of my families have migrated overseas, and we mostly married into white nationals. I have qualified in nursing since coming to Australia in 1982. I am currently practicing in mental health nursing field in psychiatry, after completing a Master of Advanced practice in Mental health. I am currently in-charge of my shift co-ordination and care in an acute 19 bed mental health ward bed working for the State Government.

My current situation with having to go through this process, and to have recovered from domestic violence and abuse, I feel that it is essential and an ethical duty of care as a nurse to help improve and reform the abusive practices and systems under Governments, and find justice and improve human lives and particularly of those who are voiceless and vulnerable under such oppressive, and perhaps corrupt systems. I myself have been labeled, stigmatized and abused whilst attempts to protect my daughter and her rights, and have been denied care of my child, who she feels safe with.

Australian people are generally good, but seem not to be aware that such laws are abusive towards women and children, and it is worse for Indian nationals such as myself as we are doubly prejudiced, it appears because of our Indian backgrounds.

I suffered many years of violent attacks and abuse within my relationship with my daughter’s father, yet when this matter was brought to the attention of the Family Court, it was completely ignored and the case was turned against myself. I was and have been a loving and caring mother to our daughter since separation. My daughter was unwanted by her father, and her father assaulted me to get rid of her till the day she was born. He approached my families to force me to have an abortion, and he was told to grow up and be a man, but he never proved to be one in the context of his abusive and malicious behaviour towards the child and me.

He abandoned me during my pregnancy, and then according to the Australian Laws, they started to remove my child from me at her three years of age, by making false allegations against me. The abuser of White Australian National who has not been able to keep a job, a woman, began on a meditated mission to make me look really bad as a mother to my daughter, through the corrupt professionals in the family court systems.

This was only the beginning of years of discrimination against me as a mother by the Australian Family Court where I have been treated as little more than a nuisance and inconvenience to the supremacist white males in the judiciary and the legal profession. The other professionals that need to be tested are the psychiatrists who make false diagnosis and breach diagnostic guidelines, and the other report writers, such as social workers and psychologists, who align their self-interests with the family law courts. Family courts actually have preferred report writers, and these people are not objective and many children have suffered lifelong impact, death and women have also been abused. These report writers are not held accountable. In my own daughter’s case, a particular report writer had her whispering in his ear, with physical body contact [in] a private locked room all by himself, breaching significant professional boundaries and trust of a mother. My child complained of distress and was relieved to be out of that room, and she further complained that the man had shared personal stories and described his family life and talked about his pregnant wife and so, which from my own nursing point of view is completely unprofessional. Such people are still practicing, under the family law act, and our complaints are ignored by the Australian Governments. At the time my daughter was only five years old, and I knew I will be seeking justice one day when I would feel recovered and empowered to speak out, and deep down I knew that I will one day.

My daughter is now twelve years old. I will briefly detail her story to you for now, and I am currently compiling a story of her life and the abuse she has suffered in much more detail for publication later.

Throughout my pregnancy with my daughter, my partner took no interest in our child and I was left to care for my daughter in her early years, as a natural process. However her father has been able to use the Court and its processes against me by making false accusations against me alleging that I was abusing our daughter and despite there being no evidence whatsoever to support his false allegations.

The Court however gave sympathy to him as he was able to gain supportive testimony from his white friends. This was a cruel irony as it was the father who had abused the child, after years years of ill-treating and abusing me within the relationship and he had left bruises on me and my child’s body, with fingerprint marks on her body, and has used my daughter as a weapon against me, by taking her to various people, privately and making her say or do things to denigrate and dehumanize me.

The Courts went against the advice of a family report writer that the child will be at risk of abuse in her father’s care.

If I can speak like an Indian, then he made me look like a second class citizen by his manipulation and deceit of some of the professionals who are not held accountable due to there being immunity for them in the Family Law Act.

When my daughter was a baby we escaped from his violence towards us both to a Women’s refuge, and got counseling for our sufferings and traumas. I was hit in the stomach during the pregnancy, and the police documented this, but then I was told not to mention this in the Family Court, as the Judges do not want to hear about domestic violence or abuse of children in such Courts despite the evidence of the abuse. And Judges take retaliatory measures against mothers who raise such issues.

My daughter was born very sickly, and spent seven weeks in the Intensive care unit, whilst I stood by her side 24/7, and spent my stay at Macdonald house, her father was trying to score another relationship and rarely visited our child during this time and was further abusive in front of an incubated baby fighting for her life, where the nurses asked me to stay away from the father’s abuse towards me in front of our sick child and to be careful of his abusive behaviour.

After being taken through this oppressive legal system, for the third time by the father in the last ten years, the eventual outcome has been that my former partner was given custody of our daughter and I was permitted only occasional supervised contact with her.

My daughter became suicidal at having been removed from my care and remains so, often saying that her life is no longer worth living. She is also at a high risk of suffering abuse and neglect and such neglect for her care has often been apparent when I have seen her on the rare occasions I am permitted to. She had also been growing side burns on her face with some confusions of her true identity when she was removed for an extended period of time from my maternal input.

All of my child's rights have been violated under the Family Law Court, and the U.N Charter of Rights for Children. She is not permitted to speak on her own behalf and the only evidence of her views permitted by the Court have been comments reported by others, such as the report writers privately hired by the father or his school friends and which she made under duress and threat by her father. The Court has abysmally failed to protect her from her father’s abusive and oppressive treatment of her despite years of recorded examples of his violence and controlling nature. The recent findings of a study demonstrated, that the children were being abused in the family courts, with having lifelong impacts on their ability to function or to lead a normal life enjoyed by others. Such studies are posted on a website http://www.safety4parentsandkids.org.au, reports by AIFS commissioned by Rudd Government.

The Father and the Family Court have also denied my daughter rights to her culture, to networking and learning or keeping up with what she has enjoyed, and she is also denied her rights to having contact with her maternal families.

My daughter’s health, safety and wellbeing have been put at risk on many occasions, but the Courts have used present laws, and denial of domestic violence and abuse in their culture of practice to ensure our safety and the child’s developmental needs. Whilst the abusive professionals and judges collude, and structure their cases to keep their jobs, courts and monetary interests, the governments and the Chief justice is unable to direct the court to stop the abuse of my daughter and myself.

In our cases, and that of other female Indian nationals, one of whom is a doctor, and we are under the same Judge who removed our children from us. I know of another Indian woman who had her children removed from her too by the Brisbane family court. The chief justice says she is powerless to tell the judge to protect my child from harm, and recently my daughter’s risks have increased more. The MP’s say it is a criminal offence for them to intervene and yet it is their responsibility for enacting legislations. So perhaps the Human rights need to intervene and let us know who should be responsible for the identified risks I have reported as a nurse to protecting my child from further, harm, danger, abuse, and lifelong impact from her abusive father, given a four year child Darcy Freeman was picked up and thrown off the bridge in Melbourne as a result of such abusive and oppressive systems in Australia. Darcy suffered before she died from the injuries she sustained. She was picked up in front of her two brothers, and the calls from the maternal families to the authorities and systems was ignored. The lifelong impact on her brothers and her families can never be forgiven. Is human life so worthless?

It appears, not only do the students from India living in Australia are prejudiced, but we are prejudiced as mothers, who have been married to White Australian National abusive males, and they are protected in the family courts. Whenever legal proceedings have taken place the systems and the professionals have been white male nationals, and many of the mothers from all nationals including Australian mums are struggling to protect their children and themselves from their abusers and the systems in place. There is no accountability of the professionals and the systems. This allows corruption to breed and many children have died, and mums have been abused.

I now am aware of about 147 women, many of them from ethnic minority groups who have been fighting to protect themselves in the family law court system and the State systems, coming to no solutions due to the complexities in the law, system, and a lack of accountability of the professionals, who protect the abusers. There is both clear and covert evidence that females and particularly non-Australian females, are suffering racial and sexist prejudice and discriminations in the Family Courts. There are many more calls from mothers of desperation to wanting to protect their children, and now I speak not only as a mother, but as a Nurse under my ethical duty of care as a nurse, to ask Human rights to respond to such calls, as my efforts have placed my own child and hundreds of children in dangerous and difficult situations.

Even though I work as a psychiatric nurse now, and have been working as a nurse for over twenty years, I have been kept below poverty line, to be fighting for my daughter's protection. All my monies are taken up by the court processes and the professionals, and yet my daughter remains in the total control and care of our abuser, who uses various tactics, to manipulate her, induce fear in her, denigrate me, and cause her to make false allegations to others to service her father’s sickly needs of inflicting ongoing abuse and violence on both of us, yet there is nothing to protect us. The hope of a good life over here has been persecuted by the legal professionals and abusive systems, where I am unable to keep fighting for my child, but I will as her mother to protect her from abuse, neglect and death.

The male judicial officers and other professionals were very prejudiced and frequently stated “Oh she is Indian, and was born in Fiji” as though constantly reminding the Court and each other that we were not white Australian and should be treated less favorably. It is like they have a right to treat us with less dignity and respect because of our cultural background. My daughter and I have been treated like second class citizens.

Other Indian mothers and myself are not abusive to our children in the way these courts and professionals have painted us to be.

My daughter was taken to another Australian national woman, with a comprehensive list of statements denigrating me, and even though she had suspicions of the father’s influence, as did a few others previously, the present family court judge ignored these and twisted facts in a proposed report. My daughter was also taken to her school teachers, Anglican schools the father works for them) to make false statements about me. The headmaster and the principle of St Hilda’s Anglican school, and I notice there are several international Asian and Indian schools attending, breached his own school policy on reporting procedures, and instead made false statements, covered up the father’s abuse in the family law courts. The Anglican schools are well known to cover up abuse, and butter up International people and market their schools, but the students must be kept an eye on.

The Anglican school refused to give me any information to me, the Police and family services failed to protect my baby, one and only.

Generally, I will be described as a good caring professional, and have been regarded well in my profession, with publications in news journals, and I am a good law abiding citizen. I am hoping to introduce this abuse of women and children in our nursing forums through publications, as we often have mothers admitted to health services to be diagnosed, but a lot of them suffer elements of PTSD, anxiety and depression from abuse of their partners. Kids also suffer, and there is plenty of documented evidence available for this. I will forward you my last newsletters which covers a number of concerns for the safety and wellbeing of mothers and children in these systems.

The Father of my child was so abusive after we escaped horrendous abuse and feared for our safety, and during our stay with him, that he did not and has not stopped this, due to a lack of protection from the Australian Government laws, or respect of our Human rights, and we have endured this level of abuse for the last ten years in the family law courts. My daughter has been set up and taken to various crooks, to make up false allegations about me, and slowly she was removed from my loving and healthy care to be handed to her abusive and dysfunctional father, who is a white Australian national.

I was so upset, that I carried out research and learnt that a number of other Nationals were also prejudiced in the family law courts, and as I have mentioned another Indian doctor, under the same Judge is fighting to see her children, and I have encouraged her to write to the Indian Consular General and request for some protection of us and our children and to hold Australian Government accountable. We request that the Indian Consular general keep a register of the Indian people being abused through these government systems. At the moment only 1% of mothers fall in our category and I bet that we form this one percent of their statistics.

At least we would like to keep you informed as we fear for our lives and our children’s lives, wellbeing, development and safety from harm caused to them from such abuse not only by our perpetrator but abusive system and professionals. The abuse extends to the father using others like not only schools, but our landlords, real estate, and police to make false allegations and persecute and imprison us, thank fully he has not succeeded even though we have nearly lost all our dignity, pride as Indian women and also our enjoyment of monetary earnings in this country.

Many normal Australian Nationals may not be prejudiced, but the government policies are, and the judicial officers and the professionals who are handpicked and chosen by the family law courts are because the system is set up to be abusive, controlling and damaging to mums and kids, and we as Indian nationals are worse off, and they speak of us as second class citizens, who deserve to be abused. My grandparents were telling us how the British abused their parents, but this has not been any easy for me or my daughter, even in 2010.

I am educated in Australia and have been working and contributing my fair share, but in the last two years, found the abuse of women and children to be so bad, including my own, that I began to learn more about the corruption and abuse of women and children, that I carried out surveys, where 147 people told the darkest stories of family law courts, and where many mothers have been murdered, their children have been picked up and thrown off the bridge, gassed, burnt, suffocated, raped, strangled, and the horrible things they do to each other.

Many children and mums/parents have developed mental illnesses, and there is no protection of us as Indian nationals either, and on many occasions we have felt prejudiced, as the white professionals impose their own history and knowledge of abuse on us. There is no respect for our cultural heritage and it is now confirmed in the family courts. The family courts have robbed me of everything.

My daughter is twelve years old, and she was doing Bollywood because she loved it, with a professional school and I have videos of her love for her culture, and she attended classes, and her father failed to take her for choreography and show, he fraudulently amended documents for the purpose of the family law court judge would probably say he couldn't care less.

The Bollywood school and a lawyer wrote to the father, and the courts saying the child will benefit from these classes, and was happy and enjoying it, but the father refused to allow a simple and harmless way of learning about her culture. It is legislated in the family law act that children have a right to enjoying their culture but this has been breached.

If it was not for my daughter, and a lack of protection for my child by the Australian governments, I would gladly go back home and live there, as this abuse of my beautiful and lovely child and me is becoming intolerable, and I have come to a point of breakdown and have had to take days off to overcome the assault on my integrity as a mother, an Indian contributor to Australian government, and to helping my patients. I cannot believe how they can paint someone so badly and make it almost look real.

In my current case, the judge has accepted everything the father has made up, without any investigations, proof, or allowing the child an independent voice through Independent children’s lawyer. The Judge has become irrational and very controlling because he may be worried that the corruption, collusion may be exposed. The father even is allowed to get away with lying to the Commonwealth government depts. Center link and child support agency, and although these depts. persuaded me to report but they failed to do anything. The father alleged that I was making death threats and made up a false affidavit, without a signature or date, and filed it. He openly in front of the contact center professionals makes statements of denigration of me in front of my daughter, inducing fear in her, and yet they don’t do anything. At the contact center, my mother came to visit her grand daughter, the ladies started shouting and screaming at me and my mother, you can just imagine my sickly mother was so fearful, she said she will not go back there again.

I lodged a complaint to the FAHCSIA, the government ministry responsible for contact center rules and funding and they failed to investigate these. So the governments are making rules at these centers and have so far isolated my daughter from all her maternal families for the last two years. The father took us to court three times, each time gaining more and more leverage, and now completely violating my daughter’s most basic and human rights, and stopping her contact, and exposing her to a greater unacceptable risk of harm with the proposed orders.

My daughter has not wanted this to happen and the judge wanted to make an order to stop contact, but not the child. The judge is irrational and is being extremely biased, as I would describe it, and can’t be considered someone who respects our Indian culture, motherhood or good parenting of children.

My daughter and I have been supposed to be getting one x 2-hour contact at a supervised contact center. The judge has tried everything to stop my contact and when all else failed he just handed my daughter to her and our abuser, and has left her in a very difficult position, where she will perhaps not be able to have any relationship with me as the child's mother or for her to know her cultural heritage, my daughter expressed to her father of suicidal thoughts, where the pressure he put on her, made her this way where she said "I will strangle myself" and that "this was only way out of this", and she was complaining of having isolative behaviours, and she is too fragile to resist his psychological abuse and harm. He has been making her believe that I being her mother was sick in the head. In my opinion, and other people’s opinion, the family court was recommended that the father go through further assessment and he was not made to do so, and then the child was to be properly assessed but this did not occur.

My child loves being with me, she has a closer attachment and bond with me.

My daughter has been violated of her rights due to the family law legislation allowing judges to be racist and prejudicial, to see me only at supervised visits, for the four years. This has taken a lot out of me and no doubt my child.

My daughter is so frightened of her father, to be saying anything positive about me as she gets into trouble; her journal led worst kinds of abuse she inflicted from the hands of our abuser and to no avail.

My daughter waited to see me at the contact centre with her first menarche, she did not know what it was and pulled me by the arm and said, "mum help me I don't know what it is and what to do about it" You can imagine as a loving mum, how I felt for my daughter, she waits to see me if she had any complaints, of personal nature, to tell me to remove an earring from her ears if they become infected, and also to take lice out of her hair, and she loves Indian foods especially her mum's curries. Don't get me wrong we are very Australian, but we also appreciate our culture, Bollywood and traditions. When she was in my care, she loved singing some of the songs, but due to the family law courts, she has probably forgotten all of her cultural heritage. I have DVDs of her love for the two cultures which she is made of. If you can understand, it is very important for one's identity formation, and accepting themselves as individuals. This was confirmed to the court by a consultant clinical psychologist, and also identified the dangers for the child by being left in the care of our abuser, but the arrogance of the family law courts, and the prejudicial nature of the judge, makes it very hard to protect our Indian children from the white Australian Nationals.

I can cite you abuse after abuse, but it is too traumatic right now as I write.

I just wish to inform you that not only the students are targeted here, but our children are taken away from us and handed to abusive Australian nationals, and also many mums and kids from their own culture suffer because of a sexist and misogynistic culture here. You may want to keep an eye on me and my daughter, as I feel quite unsafe and apprehensive, and even more so as Mental health nurse, as I know there are risks to us in every form, including suicide of my daughter eventually, to get rid off us, as we continue to suffer the abuse not from the abuser, but the prejudiced judges, State systems who fail to protect us and in fact come after us and further cause more damage, by making false allegations to a view to intimidating and wanting to imprison us, and of course the Australian Government not acting on risks when it is highlighted to them due to the laws.

My daughter and I hope to be reunited so neither of us wish to suffer mental illness, harm and damage to our lives; we cannot go through any more mental torture. We really want to feel safe, and share some happiness. I have been a worker in this country all my life, but my monies goes to all the Australian Nationals, professionals involved in abusing us, I drive the oldest car, I have gone without food, clothing and the basic essentials a person will need, and yet my income is high enough to lead a lovely and wonderful life, but they keep doing things to me and my daughter, so the father can stay at home and bludge, and the professionals keep taking everything I earn, to protecting my daughter, and seeing her at every opportunity. We have had enough abuse, and it is becoming unbearable.

I am also raising these issues with the Human Rights Commission as I not only fight to protect my own child, but for many other mums and kids, and those of their own Nationals too, who are losing their children to the abusers in the Australian Family law system. I ask for your help in protecting my daughter and other kids and mums and hold to account those abusers and abusive systems.

I will appreciate if you can help to protect us from these abusive people and systems please; I am not sure how to escape these human torture and trauma for my daughter and myself, and many other mums and kids. They are just focused on making money out of us, and all my earnings goes to lawyers, courts and tax.

I would like to tell my great grandparents about this worse form of trauma and torture due to the laws in Australian family law courts, where there is no justice, cover up of abuse, no proof, no investigations, and constructing me as a bad mother and abusing my child by handing her to abusers, greedy in-humane professionals who are chosen by the family law courts as witnesses, and they have immunity to protect them.

What I am saying is that the normal psychologist is no good, it has to be the preferred family court one, and these people breed corruption and abuse children and women in their systems and there are many failed cases from such professionals, of them quoted in my present case. I cannot imagine how they sleep, knowing the abuse they cause to us, and more so to us as Indian Nationals. Some judges use the term social engineering and it is not clear if we as mums and our children are being experimented on, these experiments must stop due to ethical consideration, as it is doing more harm and deaths to our kids. As a nurse I have seen many abused kids and mums being thrown into health care systems with abuse and mental illnesses, and I am now hoping to make the nurses unions aware of this ethical consideration and the abuse and harm to kids, who will never be able to enjoy their full potential as an adult, in their relationships, careers or happiness.

The Australian government is aware of my fight to protect my child, and so is the Chief justice, but they keep telling me that they can't intervene with family courts due to the protective laws given to them, even if my child has indicated she can be suicidal, and they also have disregarded my risk assessment as a mental health nurse to the welfare, safety and protection of my one and only child, due to the prejudiced judge, and the system in them. The Rudd government hopefully will help reform the laws to protecting all kids and mums , and also putting in place that the cultural heritage is not prejudiced of children in any way, notwithstanding that the law is there, but the current judge doesn't really care, and has been very controlling of the case, not allowing me and my daughter any freedom to be normal, they are probably hoping and it is evidenced that either she or I will break down , so we will never be able to tell our stories, so here is part of my story for your perusal.

I do not condemn Rudd government though, as it is the first government that has woken up to the corruption and abuse of women and children since the last government made laws to have us abused in the system. But Rudd government has not acted on recommendations from their own recent reviews into the workings of the Family Courts, and it is yet to be seen if mothers and children are protected from their abusers, and the abusive legal systems in Australia.

Many thanks for reading my correspondence, recently they are in the process of completely stopping my daughter’s contact with me by making orders that violates our basic human rights, and even though I have suffered PTSD, anxiety and heading towards a breakdown, with taking time off work as a nurse, I thought if I do, please be kept informed and question the government on our behalf please, we beg you to protect us and especially my daughter, who has a close and loving relationship with me, and her maternal families. The DVDs and exercise books the child wrote in and presented to the courts, and without us knowing that we will be abused again through family courts will show how much she misses her maternal families and how happy she is in our loving care, enjoying the benefits of maternal input, and her enjoyment of her cultural heritage. The courts are wrong, in-humane and set up for the abusers to abuse us even more if we happen to be non-Australian Nationals. They have also denied my elderly mother who is the most wonderful person in the world her rights to see her grandchild, and my daughter wants to see her too, but we haven’t been able to see our families, it just goes on and the sad, cruel and terrible decisions of the family law courts is violating her human rights, and this must be addressed by the Human Rights Commission. I will fight tooth and nail to protect my baby, but please keep yourselves informed. I have real fear that someone could be set up to harm me, or harms my child if I continue to protest about these injustices. Here's one of thousands of examples of women being killed, and children being harmed, or killed and a case that sent shivers through the nation and world was the case of precious Darcy Freeman:

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/murdered-mum-foresaw-death/348977.aspx

In conclusion, I beg you to write to the Australian government and ask that they commission a Public Inquiry into the prejudice and discrimination against Indian mothers and their children and those in other ethnic minority groups, and of the racism and sexism which is occurring in the Family Courts of Australia.

What is happening in such Courts is the worst kind of human torture, when children are being separated from loving mothers without any proof or good reason. And such mothers are being treated so abominably by the Courts.

This is the Secret Shame of Australia and is happening almost daily in some part of Australia. The Family Courts have no interest in, nor concern for Truth and Justice, nor the Principles of Natural Justice, only to securing favorable treatment and outcomes for white Australian fathers, no matter that they may be dangerous violent abusers, drug dealers, have criminal records, or are mentally disordered.

I thank you for taking the time to read my letter, and please if you consider replying then, also send me an email.

I formally ask the UN Human Rights to investigate my complaints and that the matter be subjected to International Courts with a view to holding Australian family Law Courts liable for the prejudice of us for reasons mentioned above, and to prejudice me as a Psychiatric registered nurse to protecting our practice in recognition of risks to vulnerable people of the lifelong impact or death of children and ignoring my risk assessments. This case advocates for many cases, of mums and kids being prejudice and such submission is made under the National Peak Body for Safety and Protection of Parents and Children.


With kind regards

[an Indian mother, from the National Peak Body for Safety and protection of Parents and Children]

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Contacted:

20 May 2010
To Mr Amit Dsgupta
Indian Consular General
Sydney
indian@indianconsulatesydney.org

Pro Sarva Daman Singh
Brisbane
indcon@optusnet.com.au

Cc: UN Human Rights Commission
Complaints to human rights commission: Where to send communications?

Communications intended for handling under the Council Complaint Procedure may be addressed to:
Human Rights Council and Treaties Division
Complaint Procedure
OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Fax: (41 22) 917 90 11
E-mail: CP@ohchr.org

ccc: Senator Claire Moore
Australian MP, Australian Government
senator.moore@aph.gov.au

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Once again, if anyone wishes to learn more about the National Peak Body, please visit this website: 
www.safety4parentsandkids.org.au.

Continuing Your Sex and Safety and Survival Education

 [artwork is from here]

Question: If women around the world, of all colors, are trafficked and made more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS because het men who use and abuse women don't want to use condoms; if Black women in the U.S. are dying the most from HIV/AIDS; and whites are the least infected race; and if gay men continue to be suffering with the epidemic, which demographic most benefits? 
Answer: white heterosexual men.

What follows is from *here*.

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Continuing Education For Sex Educators

San Francisco Sex Information's Continuing Education program is a series of monthly classes on topics of interest to sex educators, helping professionals, and anyone curious about the workings of human sexuality.

Admission is $5 for anyone who's volunteered with SFSI in the past six months, and $15 for the general public.

These classes do not necessarily fulfill Continuing Education requirements for professional societies. If a class counts as professional development hours for a particular profession (ie. nurses, therapists or teachers) it will be noted in the class description.

Please note that all of SFSI's classes are scent-free events. In order to make them accessible to everyone, please refrain from wearing perfume or other scented products.


Next Class: The Global AIDS Epidemic: HIV infection rates, treatments and the search for a cure

Presenter : Mathew Stremlau, PhD
Date : Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
Time : Doors at 6:30, event 7:00PM - 8:30PM
Venue : Audre Lorde room, Women's Building, SF

Class Description

SFSI is pleased to host a researcher from the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology for an informational evening focusing on the global AIDS epidemic. The class will focus on global HIV infection rates and how these rates have changed over time as well as look at how infection rates in industrialized nations differ from those in developing nations. We will also learn about current HIV/AIDS research and get a glimpse at what scientists at the Gladstone Institute hope to accomplish in the upcoming year. If you've ever wanted to learn about the biology of the HIV virus and how exactly science is working to find a cure for AIDS, this is the class for you.

Presenter Bio

Matthew Stremlau, PhD is a senior postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Warner C. Greene, MD, PhD, at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology and the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Stremlau received a BS in chemistry from Haverford College and a PhD in biochemistry from Harvard University. He has extensive experience living and working in developing countries, including China and several African nations. He also has experience working closely with policy makers and public health experts in the United States and Africa.

In his research, Dr. Stremlau seeks to understand the genetic basis of natural resistance to HIV-1 and the ability to naturally suppress viral replication in the absence of antiretroviral therapy. As a graduate student at Harvard University, he discovered TRIM5α, the primary block to HIV-1 infection in Old World monkey cells. His current research involves an examination of rare genetic variations among host restriction factors (e.g., APOBEC3 family members, TRIMα, and Tehterin) and differences in viral susceptibility among individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa.

He was a member of the Secretary of State's Policy Planning Staff in the Office of the Secretary in 2008-09. He also served in the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator in the Department of State in 2007-08. He was a visiting scientist in the Department of Molecular Biology at Peking University in Beijing, China, in 2006-07.

Purchase Admission

Tickets are $15 general admission, $5 current volunteers. Admission to continuing education classes is limited by our venue size. Purchase your ticket early to guarantee a seat. Any remaining tickets will be available at the door for cash only. If at least one member of your party has not arrived by fifteen minutes after the doors open, your seats may be resold to individuals waiting at the door. If you are an active SFSI volunteer but do not know the code for the volunteer price, contact your shift supervisor or continuing.ed@sfsi.org to get access. Please say in your email how you've volunteered for SFSI.

There are a limited number of volunteer opportunities at the class itself that are available in exchange for free admission. Contact continuing.ed@sfsi.org to volunteer.

An In-Fidelity Update: Fidelity Investment Company apparently is stubbornly and willfully invested in Maintaining Genocide

 [image is from here]

For this and other related reading and news, please see *here*. When you hear about people having large stock portfolios, day-trading, and being millionaires, what gender and race comes to mind? In my mind, and in my experience with few exceptions, the gender is man and the race is white. That is not a lucky break for white men, at all. It's entirely a function of the sexist and racist politics of corporate capitalism, "oppressive-and-lethal-not-free" trade, and globalisation.


Investors Against Genocide
Draw the line at investing in genocide


Dear friends of IAG,

We are proud to let you know that our colleagues at the Unitarian Universalist Association announced on Friday that they will be moving their $178 million in retirement funds from Fidelity to TIAA-CREF as part of their commitment to genocide-free investing.  This important move is a leading example of the fact that Americans do not want their savings tied to genocide and that the market now provides clear mainstream choice for individuals and organizations that wish to be genocide-free.

All of the details and news related to this announcement, including the UUA press release and a news article from Reuters are posted at this link: investorsagainstgenocide.org/UUAleavesFidelity

We are very excited about this important step forward for genocide-free investing and thank you for your ongoing support.

If you know of other groups that are moving, or have moved, their money to genocide-free options, please let us know.

WAYS YOU CAN HELP
  1. Consider moving your investments to American Funds or TIAA-CREF, the two mainstream investment firms that have human rights policies and have taken substantial action in support of those policies.  If you decide to do so after reviewing how the funds meet your personal financial and non-financial criteria, please write the company you are leaving as well as the company receiving your money to let management know why you have made this important decision.  Click here for details on the divestment by American Funds and TIAA-CREF.
  2. Volunteer to submit a shareholder proposal to mutual funds you've held for over a year and in which you have at least $2,000 invested.  The successes with American Funds and TIAA-CREF demonstrate that our shareholder resolutions are effectively pressuring mutual fund companies since both companies changed their policies only after receiving shareholders proposals from IAG volunteers.  Now we need more volunteers to submit our recently updated and strengthened proposal to companies like Vanguard, Fidelity, and Franklin Templeton that continue to hold large investments in problem companies.  We've made the submission process easy and confidential. Click here for details.
Thanks so much all you've done and continue to do for the cause of genocide-free investing.

Eric, Susan, Bill, Mary and Shana
The Investors Against Genocide Team