Canada: UN to Investigate Violence against Native Women
Friday, January 20, 2012 10:50 AM
Women’s rights organizations in Canada, including the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) and the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action, are applauding the U.N.’s response to their appeal to launch an investigation into the high number of missing and murdered Native women in Canada. According to NWAC, over 600 Native women have disappeared or been murdered in the last 30 years and Native women are 5 times more likely to die in violent incidents than non-Aboriginal women.
Activists hope a U.N. investigation will encourage the Canadian government to take more proactive steps to address the issue. Activists explained that the Canadian government, which under Prime Minister Stephen Harper cut funding to organizations helping Native communities, is failing to properly address the issue and this constitutes a violation of their responsibility as a signatory to the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.