The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has found that Canada’s systemic failures to protect indigenous women from violence, disappearance and murder constitute grave human rights violations under the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Convention). The Committee issued its findings after conducting an inquiry in response to individual complaints filed by indigenous women’s advocates under the CEDAW Convention’sOptional Protocol. The Committee called on Canada to take several measures to combat violence against indigenous women and girls, to address widespread poverty in indigenous communities, and to eliminate entrenched discrimination against indigenous women.
Compiled from: Canada’s failure to effectively address murder and disappearance of Aboriginal women ‘grave rights violation’ - UN experts, U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights News Release (March 6, 2015).