UN Will Conduct Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women in Canada

7 posts / 0 new

Tue, 2011-12-13 14:05

ikosmos

Quote:
The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has decided to conduct an inquiry into the murders and disappearances of Aboriginal women and girls across Canada. The Committee, composed of 23 independent experts from around the world, is the UN's main authority on women's human rights. The Committee's decision was announced today by Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, President of the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC), and Sharon McIvor of the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA).... In January and in September 2011, faced with the continuing failures of Canadian governments to take effective action in connection with the murders and disappearances, FAFIA and NWAC requested the Committee to launch an inquiry....

UN Inquiry into Canada

"Canada has not lived up to its obligations under international human rights law to prevent, investigate and remedy violence against Aboriginal women and girls."

Tue, 2011-12-13 14:09

ikosmos

rabble.ca posts the press release of the Native Women's Association of Canada

Tue, 2011-12-13 16:32

Fidel

Let's hope they don't fob it off to Jacques Marion and claim that they are doing something.

Tue, 2011-12-13 18:16

Lachine Scot

Weird that this hasn't made it onto any mainstream Canadian news sites yet.

Tue, 2011-12-13 22:07

Catchfire

From the opening link, for posterity:

Quote:
“FAFIA and NWAC requested this Inquiry because violence against Aboriginal women and girls is a national tragedy that demands immediate and concerted action,” said Jeannette Corbiere Lavell. “Aboriginal women in Canada experience rates of violence 3.5 times higher than non- Aboriginal women, and young Aboriginal women are five times more likely to die of violence. NWAC has documented the disappearances and murders of over 600 Aboriginal women and girls in Canada over about twenty years, and we believe that there may be many more. The response of law enforcement and other government officials has been slow, often dismissive of reports made by family members of missing women, uncoordinated and generally inadequate.”

“These murders and disappearances have their roots in systemic discrimination and in the denial of basic economic and social rights” said Sharon McIvor of FAFIA. “We believe that the CEDAW Committee can play a vital role not only in securing justice for the women and girls who have died or disappeared, but also in preventing future violations, by identifying the action that Canadian governments must take to address the root causes. Canada has not lived up to its obligations under international human rights law to prevent, investigate and remedy violence against Aboriginal women and girls.”

@Lachine Scot: I imagine it has something to do with BC's coverage of the [s]inquiry[/s] travesty happening in Vancouver. Why would they also [s]ignore[/s] cover the UN announcement?

Wed, 2011-12-14 13:27

Catchfire

DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE WOMEN’S ORGANIZATIONS RELEASE UN SUBMISSION DETAILS

Quote:
December 14, 2011 Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish Territories– In the past twenty four hours, the positive and much-awaited news has been released that the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women initiated a significant official inquiry process into the murders and disappearances of women and girls across Canada in October 2011.

Two women’s groups based in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, a neighbourhood known as the ‘ground zero’ for missing and murdered women, are releasing details of the submissions they made in October 2011 under Article 8 of the Optional Protocol of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.

According to the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre and February 14th Women’s Memorial March Committee: “All levels of government have failed to understand or take action on those systemic injustices that allowed the unimaginable deaths and disappearances of so many women, disproportionately Indigenous, from the Downtown Eastside for decades. This is why we decided to make our voices heard at the international level.”

The Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre (DEWC) and February 14th Women’s Memorial March Committee (WMMC) have been rooted in the Downtown Eastside for the past thirty years and have been raising issues of discrimination based on gender and race, a legacy of colonialism, institutional discrimination, economic marginalization, and the enabling environment for violence against women in Canada’s poorest postal code.

In October 2011 the two organizations made submissions to UN CEDAW in light of the failure of the provincial Missing Women’s Commission of Inquiry. The organizations formally submitted that “The Commission continues the pattern of grave and systemic discrimination against women in the Downtown Eastside which the Commission was supposed to investigate.”

Wed, 2012-01-04 21:49

NDPP

Goar: Parliament Fails Native Women

http://www.thestar.com/article/1110118--goar-parliament-fails-native-women

"...The opposition parties - except three NDP neophytes - didn't take a stand. The Native Women's Association of Canada, bought off by dribs and drabs of government funding, didn't raise an outcry. The Assembly of First Nations, made up primarily of male chiefs was silent. And Canadians - because they didn't know about the report or felt helpless - let the issue fall through the cracks.

At last count (2010), 582 cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women had been documented. They died at the hands of drunken spouses and strangers. They perished at home, on lonely highways, under bridges, in rooming houses and at serial killer Robert Picton's pig farm in Port Coquitlam outside Vancouver.

The violence goes on. But Canada doesn't seem to care."