Join Jess Hill for a two part discussion about love, power and coercive control.

Part One: Perspectives from the UK

In 2015, coercive control was criminalised in England, Wales and Scotland. Five years on, has this law created better outcomes for victims and survivors?

Join moderator Jess Hill (author of See What You Made Me Do) and UK panelists, Pragna Patel (Southall Black Sisters); Dr Marsha Scott (chief executive, Scottish Women's Aid); Girijamba Polubothu (manager, Shakti Women's Aid); and Melani Morgan OBE (trainer and facilitator, Safelives); for a frank discussion about the process of criminalising coercive control and how these new laws have impacted the lives of victim-survivors of domestic abuse.

What is coercive control?

Coercive control is pattern of dominating behaviour within a relationship. It may include emotional abuse, isolation, threats, intimidation, sexual coercion, financial abuse and cyber stalking. These controlling behaviours are designed to make a person dependent by isolating them from support, exploiting them, depriving them of independence and regulating their everyday behaviour.

Where to get help in Australia:

1800 RESPECT 1800 737 732
Lifeline 13 11 14
For more support services, visit our website.

Note: this panel talk will feature closed captions.

LOVE, POWER & CONTROL Part Two: The Australian context (New speakers just announced!)
1-2pm AEDT, Thurs 18 February | Lunch webinar | Register now >

Join us for part two of Love, Power & Control with Jess Hill as we shift focus to what criminalising coercive control would mean here in Australia.

Featuring panelists Dr Manjula O'Connor (psychiatrist and social activist); Angela Lynch AM (Women's Legal Service QLD); and Prof Heather Douglas (Melbourne Law School). Paul McGorrery (PhD Candidate, Deakin); Tania Farha (CEO, Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria and Domestic Violence Victoria); and Christine Robinson (Coordinator, Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women's Legal Centre) will also be joining our panel.

Find out more >

LOVE, POWER & CONTROL Part One: Perspectives from the UK

Panelists

Jess Hill
Investigative journalist, broadcaster and author

Jess Hill is an Australian investigative journalist and best selling author of See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control & Domestic Abuse which was awarded the 2020 Stella Prize. Jess has been writing and researching about domestic abuse since 2014. Before that, she was a producer for ABC Radio, a Middle East correspondent for The Global Mail, and an investigative journalist for Background Briefing. She was listed in Foreign Policy's top 100 women to follow on Twitter, and also as one of 30 most influential people under 30 by Cosmopolitan magazine (two publications rarely listed in the same sentence). Her reporting has won two Walkley awards, an Amnesty International award and three Our Watch awards.

Pragna Patel
Director and founder, Southall Black Sisters

Pragna Patel is Director of Southall Black Sisters and a founding member of Women Against Fundamentalism. She has written extensively on race, gender and religion. Her publications include ‘Citizenship: Whose Rights?’ in Women and Citizenship in Europe: Borders, Rights and Duties, ed. A. Ward et al. (Trentham Books), the ‘The Time Has Come .. Asian Women in Struggle’ in Black British Feminism - A Reader, ed. H. S. Mirza (Taylor & Francis). Listen to her TEDX talk on Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Dr Marsha Scott
Chief executive, Scottish Women's Aid

Dr Marsha Scott is a feminist researcher and practitioner and has advocated, volunteered, researched, and worked in the violence against women sector in the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe for 30 years. Prior to taking up post at Scottish Women's Aid in April 2015, Marsha worked for 10 years at West Lothian Council, where she helped set up and had strategic responsibility for the West Lothian Domestic and Sexual Assault Team.

Girijamba Polubothu
Manager, Shakti Women's Aid

Girijamba Polubothu is the manager of Shakti Women's Aid in Ediburgh which also has an outreach service in Fife Tayside and Forth Valley in Scotland. She has worked extensively with minority ethnic organisations and has been working with Shakti Women's Aid for the past 19 years. She currently sits on the Scottish Government's Forced Marriage Network Group and has been actively involved in drafting the Forced Marriage etc. (Protection and Jurisdiction) (Scotland) Act 2011, the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill which criminalises forced marriage and Multi agency practice guidelines – handling cases of forced marriage. She is also one of the Forced Marriage Commissioners (National Commission on Forced Marriage). Girijamba an active member of the National No Recourse to Public Funds Campaign Group lead by Southall Black Sisters and is locally involved with various Violence Against Women Partnerships and, Edinburgh's Marac and Cross Party group - Men’s Violence against Women and Children.

Melani Morgan OBE
Trainer and facilitator, Safelives

Melani is a trainer and facilitator with over 30 years’ experience in the police. At SafeLives, Melani developed the Domestic Abuse Matters Change Programme - a cultural, attitudinal and practice change programme for the frontline of policing. Melani uses her lived experience of domestic abuse in all her work bringing an authentic voice to domestic abuse provision.

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