Silenced Women
Jennifer Robinson | Hannah Tonkin | BJ Newton | Nour Haydar
More than one in four women in Australia have experienced domestic or family violence, and one in five have experienced sexual violence. Yet, despite survivors increasingly speaking out, systemic barriers to addressing gender-based violence persist.
In a powerful and necessary conversation, internationally acclaimed lawyer Jennifer Robinson, NSW’s inaugural Women’s Safety Commissioner Hannah Tonkin and UNSW academic BJ Newton join forces to examine how legal, institutional and cultural systems can suppress the voices of women, and the far-reaching impact this has on our society.
Chaired by journalist Nour Haydar, this event will explore the growing use of legal threats and actions to silence survivors, outdated gendered views and systems, and the rise in online misogyny and abuse, and ask how we can dismantle structures that protect perpetrators. Focusing on fostering societal cohesion and equity for all, this conversation offers vital insights into addressing and ending gendered violence.
Presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas and UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture.
LIVE EVENT & VENUE INFORMATION
Leighton Hall is located inside the John Niland Scientia Building at UNSW Sydney's Kensington campus. Please note this is a live event only, and will not be available via livestream.
TICKETS
ACCESS
Wheelchair Access
The closest accessible drop off point to Leighton Hall is via Gate 11, Botany Street. More information on getting there can be found via our interactive accessibility map available here.
Assisted Listening
Leighton Hall has hearing assistive technology available. Patrons wishing to utilise this service must collect a Roger™ inductive neck loop receiver from the venue staff, and this system can be used with a hearing aid or cochlear implant with a T-coil, or with headphones.
Auslan & Captioning
Auslan interpreting services and/or live captioning can be provided for selected talks upon request.
Contact
To book and discuss access services, please call the Centre for Ideas on 02 9065 0485 or email centreforideas@unsw.edu.au.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT & PARKING
Leighton Hall (John Niland Scientia Building) is easily accessible via public transport. The closest light rail stop is the UNSW High Street (L2 line) and the closest bus stop is UNSW Gate 14, Barker Street (303). For more information please call the Transport Infoline on 131 500 or visit transportnsw.info.
Paid casual and visitor parking is offered via the CellOPark App and ‘pay by plate meters’ in all other UNSW car parks. The Botany St Car Park (Gate 11) parking station is the closest to the venue, and is located here. For more information head here.
PROGRESS FOR ALL
Social cohesion, the connectedness of people to each other and their trust in the institutions that give society structure, is an important element of societal stability and security. As challenges to social cohesion increase, bridging divides to foster inclusive communities becomes an increasingly urgent and critical issue.
In the next decade, UNSW will continue efforts to strengthen societal resilience, security and cohesion. This will build on our significant education and research into human rights, justice, resilience, cohesion and inequality across Australia and the Asia Pacific region. We will focus on enabling access, ensuring equity and building trust in the digital age, through active participation in policy development, our deep research expertise, and genuine engagement with the people, communities and partners throughout our region.
You can read more about our objectives in our UNSW Strategy: Progress for All.
CONTACT
For all enquiries, please email centreforideas@unsw.edu.au or call the Centre for Ideas on 02 9065 0485.
The Centre for Ideas is happy to receive phone calls via the National Relay Service. TTY users, phone 133 677, then ask for 02 9065 0485. Speak and Listen users, phone 1300 555 727 then ask for 02 9065 0485. For more information on all other relay calls visit here.
Jennifer Robinson
Jennifer Robinson is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London. Jen has acted in key human rights and media freedom cases in domestic and international courts, including in relation to violence against women. Jen is a passionate advocate for free speech and has acted for high-profile women speaking out about their experience of abuse and journalists and media organisations reporting on gender-based violence. The second edition of her book with Dr Keio Yoshida, How Many More Women, which exposes the global legal backlash that followed the MeToo movement and the legal risks faced when speaking out about gender-based violence, was published in 2024. Jen sits on the boards of the Grata Fund, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights and the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at Oxford University.
Hannah Tonkin
Hannah Tonkin commenced as the inaugural NSW Women's Safety Commissioner in 2023. In this role, she provides leadership across the government and community to strengthen responses to gender-based violence, raise community awareness and amplify the voices of victim-survivors. Previously Hannah was an international human rights lawyer for many years at the United Nations, working in a range of global contexts including Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Gaza, Ukraine and the former Yugoslavia. She also worked as the Director of Disability Rights at the Australian Human Rights Commission, and as a barrister in London and Adelaide. Hannah has published widely in international law and human rights, and lectured at the University of Oxford, the American University of Paris and the University of Adelaide. She is passionate about driving systems reform and cultural change to end gender-based violence in all its forms.
BJ Newton
BJ Newton is a proud Wiradjuri woman and mother to three young children. She is a Scientia Senior Research Fellow based at the Social Policy Research Centre within UNSW Sydney. BJ specialises in Indigenous research methods and child protection research and policy. Her research focuses on working in partnership with Aboriginal organisations to build evidence and support Aboriginal families interfacing with child protection systems.
BJ has extensive experience working on a range of child protection and domestic and family violence commissioned research for NSW DCJ, and multiple projects for the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.
BJ's current research, Bring them home, keep them home investigates the rates, outcomes and experiences of successful and sustainable restoration for Aboriginal children in out-of-home care. This is a four-year research project running from mid-2021 to mid-2025 in partnership with Aboriginal organisations in NSW.
Nour Haydar
Nour Haydar is co-host and senior producer of Guardian Australia’s daily news podcast Full Story. Prior to joining Guardian Australia in 2024, Nour was a federal political reporter with ABC News at Parliament House in Canberra, and a fill-in presenter on ABC News Breakfast. Nour has regularly reported on gender-based violence and was an inaugural fellow for the Our Watch Fellowship in 2019.