Following Heather's conviction and sentence, a campaign was initiated to address issues around women who kill in self defence. The campaign group includes individual women, Brimbank Community Centre, Domestic Violence and Incest Resource Centre and Community Legal Centres. The campaign aims to address issues such as:

• The limitations of the legal options to women living with domestic violence
• Law reform, specifically around legal options of self defence and provocation and inconsistencies in their application
• The use of battered women's syndrome and
• Education of the community and professionals about domestic violence.

The issue is one which has not received much attention previously because of the patriarchal nature of the legal system, and the particular masculine ideologies which inform its operation. In February 1997, a forum was held to raise public awareness and discuss such issues such as women's experiences of living with domestic violence, the legal context of domestic homicides, battered women's syndrome and reforming the law of self defence. The forum was well attended and covered by the media. The forum was taped so those women who were in prison for killing their violent partners could also participate in the day.

The group has focused on informing themselves of the issues, particularly the laws in relation to provocation, self defence, manslaughter and mitigating circumstances and how their application and interpretation operates to discriminate against women. Recent cases have been analysed to identify differences and similarities in the way these defences are applied to women. The group has developed a position on the usefulness of the battered women's syndrome in such situations and we are now moving on to analyse the situation in New Zealand and Canada where a lot of work has been done on this particular issue.

An offshoot of this campaign is the Release Heather Osland Campaign, which focuses specifically on the case of Heather Osland.