VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND GIRLS IN CANADA: A .
VIOLENCE AGAINSTINDIGENOUS WOMENAND GIRLS IN CANADA:A SUMMARY OFAMNESTYINTERNATIONAL’SCONCERNS AND CALLTO ACTIONFebruary 2014
VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND GIRLS IN CANADAVIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS WOMENAND GIRLS IN CANADABACKGROUNDThe scale and severity of violence faced by Indigenous women and girls inCanada—First Nations, Inuit and Métis—constitutes a national humanrights crisis. Despite the vast scale and entrenched nature of the crisis, andthe many calls for action made by Indigenous peoples’ organizations, civilsociety groups, provincial and territorial government leaders,Parliamentarians, and international and national human rights bodies, theCanadian government has failed to implement a comprehensive andcoordinated national response in keeping with the seriousness andpervasiveness of the threats faced by Indigenous women and girls.Available statistics consistently point to a greatly disproportionate incidenceof violence against Indigenous women in Canada. In a 2009 governmentsurvey of the ten provinces, Aboriginal women were nearly three times morelikely than non-Aboriginal women to report being a victim of a violent crime;this was true regardless of whether the violence was perpetrated by astranger or by a spouse.1Not only do Indigenous women face more frequent incidence of violence,the violence is also much more severe. A recent Statistics Canada reportsuggests that the national homicide rate for Indigenous women is at leastseven times higher than for non-Indigenous women.2There are also a greatly disproportionate number of Indigenous women andgirls among long-term missing persons cases—cases where the reasons forthe individual’s disappearance and their eventual fate remain undetermined.Saskatchewan, which to Amnesty International’s knowledge is the onlyjurisdiction to have thoroughly reviewed its long-term missing persons’ filesfor a possible trend in the disappearances of Indigenous women, found thatalthough Indigenous women make up only 6 per cent of the population ofthe province, 60 per cent of its missing women are Indigenous.3 Finally,Shannon Brennan, Violent Victimization of Aboriginal Women in the Canadian Provinces (StatisticsCanada, 2011), 39-eng.htm. The figure excludesviolence against women in the north, in Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, where the majority ofInuit women live.2Vivian O’Donnell and Susan Wallace, Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report: FirstNations, Inuit and Métis Women (Statistics Canada, 2011), 2-eng.pdf.3Saskatchewan Provincial Partnership Committee on Missing Persons, Final Report (October spx?DocID 3025,104,81,1,Documents&MediaID 1615&Filename missing-persons-final.pdf.12Amnesty International February 2014
A SUMMARY OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL’S CONCERNSthrough its own research, the Native Women’s Association of Canada wasable to document 582 cases of missing or murdered Indigenous women andgirls, mostly from the last two decades.4Violence affects Indigenous women and girls in their own families andcommunities, as well as in predominantly non-Indigenous communities, andthreatens Indigenous women and girls from all walks of life. This violenceagainst Indigenous women and girls has deep roots in racism,marginalization and poverty.Decades of government policy have impoverished and broken apartIndigenous families and communities, leaving many Indigenous women andgirls at heightened risk of exploitation and attack. Deep inequalities in livingconditions and discrimination in the provision of government services havepushed many Indigenous women and girls into precarious situations—ranging from inadequate housing to sex work—where there is a heightenedrisk of violence. These same inequalities have also denied many Indigenouswomen access to services needed to escape violence, such as culturallyappropriate emergency shelters and transition houses. At the same time,there is clear evidence that some men seek out Indigenous women astargets for attacks.5 Acts of violence against Indigenous women and girlsmay be motivated by racism, or may be carried out in the expectation thatsociety’s indifference to the welfare and safety of these women will allow theperpetrators to escape justice.6Amnesty International’s research, based on the testimonies of families whohave sought police help when sisters and daughters have gone missing, aswell as on interviews with police, indicates that police procedures andpractices for responding to missing persons cases too often fail to take intoaccount the pervasiveness and severity of threats faced by Indigenouswomen and girls, resulting in a failure to take prompt and effective action.Bias among police may mean that family concerns over a missing person ora suspicious death are ignored, leading to investigations that areinadequately resourced or closed prematurely. The resulting impunity forviolence against Indigenous women and girls contributes to an environmentwhere such acts are seen as normal and inevitable rather than serious andNative Women's Association of Canada, What their voices tell us: Research findings from the Sisters inSpirit Initiative (March 2010), www.nwac.ca/sites/default/files/reports/2010 NWAC SIS Report EN.pdf.5Commissioners A.C. Hamilton and C.M. Sinclair, Report of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba:The Deaths of Helen Betty Osborne and John Joseph Harper, 1991.6For example, Transcript of trial, R v Crawford, May 1996, p.87. Warren Goulding, Just Another Indian: ASerial Killer and Canada’s Indifference (Calgary: Heritage House Publishing Company, 2001), p.188. Seealso Amnesty International, Stolen Sisters: A Human Rights Response to Discrimination and Violenceagainst Indigenous Women in Canada, AMR 20/003/2004 2004enstolensisters.pdf; and Amnesty International, NoMore Stolen Sisters: The Need for a Comprehensive Response to Discrimination and Violence AgainstIndigenous Women in Canada, AMR 20/012/2009 2009enstolensistersupdate.pdf.43Amnesty International Canada February 2014
VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND GIRLS IN CANADAcriminal, and where women and girls do not seek justice because they knowthey will not get it. 7A crucial concern is the inadequacy and inconsistency of police datacollection practices. According to Statistics Canada, in the majority ofhomicide cases across the country police fail to record whether or not thevictim identified as Aboriginal.8 As a consequence, there are no definitiveofficial statistics on the numbers of missing and murdered Indigenouswomen and girls. This gap in the data masks the severity of the problem,making it more difficult to allocate appropriate resources and creatingbarriers to an effective response at the community level.Resource allocation and programming to tackle this violence and its rootcauses have been piecemeal and without a guiding strategy or coordination.Although in 2010 the federal government announced plans to spend 10million over five years to address violence against Indigenous women andgirls, most of the funding was earmarked for police initiatives that trackmissing persons in general, without any particular focus on the specificpatterns of gender-based violence against Indigenous women and girls.Furthermore, organizations working to advance the rights of Indigenouswomen and girls and address issues of violence, such as the NativeWomen’s Association of Canada, continue to face an uncertain fundingclimate in which long delays and cuts in government funding threaten workthe government itself has identified as being vital in addressing violenceagainst Aboriginal women and girls.9A CONCERTED CALL TO ACTIONA wide range of national and international organizations and human rightsbodies have raised urgent concerns over the scope and scale of violenceagainst Indigenous women and girls in Canada and called for a concertednational response that is comprehensive, coordinated, and developed incollaboration with Indigenous women and girls themselves.The level of international concern is demonstrated by the fact that in 2013,three international human rights mechanisms conducted visits to Canadaeither wholly or in part to investigate violence against Indigenous womenSee Amnesty International, Stolen Sisters: A Human Rights Response to Discrimination and Violenceagainst Indigenous Women in Canada (2004); and Amnesty International, No More Stolen Sisters: TheNeed for a Comprehensive Response to Discrimination and Violence Against Indigenous Women inCanada (2009).8Vivian O’Donnell and Susan Wallace, Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report: FirstNations, Inuit and Métis Women, Statistics Canada (2011). See also Rebecca Kong and Karen Beattie,Collecting Data on Aboriginal People in the Criminal Justice System: Methods and Challenges (CanadianCentre for Justice Statistics, 2005), .pdf.9Amnesty International, “Our Work, Issues, Indigenous Peoples: No More Stolen us-peoples/no-more-stolen-sisters.74Amnesty International February 2014
A SUMMARY OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL’S CONCERNSand girls. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights mission washeld in August, followed by the Committee on the Elimination ofDiscrimination against Women in September, and United Nations SpecialRapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, in October.Reports from all three missions are expected this year.The visits by these human rights mechanisms follow years of statements andrecommendations by international human rights bodies. In April 2013Canada made its second appearance before the Universal Periodic Reviewprocess of the UN Human Rights Council. During this review, twenty-fourcountries raised questions and made recommendations with respect to deepconcerns about staggeringly high rates of violence against Indigenouswomen and girls in Canada. Nine countries, including New Zealand, Norwayand Switzerland specifically called on Canada to develop a comprehensivenational action plan and/or carry out a national inquiry to address theviolence. Canada’s response to these concrete recommendations for actionmade by close partners and allies did not acknowledge any need for changesin government policies and approach.In 2012 the Committee Against Torture recommended that Canada“enhance its efforts to end all forms of violence against aboriginal womenand girls by, inter alia, developing a coordinated and comprehensivenational plan of action, in close cooperation with aboriginal women’sorganizations [ ].”10 In 2012, the Committee on the Rights of the Childadvised Canada to “[e]nsure that the factors contributing to the high levelsof violence among Aboriginal women and girls are well understood andaddressed in national and province/territory plans.”11 The Committee alsoaffirmed that it was “gravely concerned about cases of Aboriginal girls whowere victims of child prostitution and have gone missing or were murderedand have not been fully investigated with the perpetrators goingunpunished.”12 Also in 2012, the Committee on the Elimination of RacialDiscrimination expressed its concern “that Aboriginal women and girls aredisproportionately victims of life-threatening forms of violence, spousalhomicides and disappearances,” and urged Canada to take appropriateaction, including the establishment of a national database on murdered andmissing Aboriginal women, in consultation with Aboriginal women and theirorganizations.13Likewise, in 2008 the Committee on the Elimination of DiscriminationAgainst Women recommended that Canada “develop a specific andConcluding Observations of the Committee Against Torture: Canada, CAT/C/CAN/CO/6, June 25, 2012,para. 20.11Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child: Canada, CRC/C/CAN/CO/3-4,October 5, 2012, para. 47.12Ibid, para. 48.13Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Canada,CERD/C/CAN/CO/19-20, April 4, 2012, para. 17.105Amnesty International Canada February 2014
VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND GIRLS IN CANADAintegrated plan for addressing the particular conditions affecting aboriginalwomen, both on and off reserves, and of ethnic and minority women,including poverty, poor health, inadequate housing, low school-completionrates, low employment rates, low income and high rates of violence.”14 TheCommittee further urged Canada “to examine the reasons for the failure toinvestigate the cases of missing or murdered aboriginal women and to takethe necessary steps to remedy the deficiencies in the system.”15Public demands for action continue to grow each year. AmnestyInternational, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, the Assembly ofFirst Nations, and many other organizations have long called for acomprehensive response to violence against Indigenous women. There isgrowing momentum within Canadian society as a whole to demandmeaningful commitments to address this human rights tragedy. In October2013, 216 communities across the country hosted Sisters in Spirit vigils tohonour missing and murdered Indigenous women.National Action PlanA comprehensive, coordinated national response is essential to address gapsin current policies, programs and services to stop violence againstIndigenous women and girls. Implementation of a national action plan toend violence against women is also necessary to fulfill Canada’sinternational human rights commitments.In 2006, a comprehensive report on violence against women by the UNSecretary-General set out measures required of states to meet their legalobligations and policy commitments. Among these obligations is the“[f]ormulation and implementation of executive policies or plans of action toeliminate violence against women.”16 In January 2007, the United NationsGeneral Assembly adopted a resolution that called on all states to eliminateall forms of violence against women “by means of a more systematic,comprehensive, multisectoral and sustained approach, adequately supportedand facilitated by strong institutional mechanisms and financing, throughnational action plans ”17 The call for comprehensive, sustained NationalAction Plans has been reaffirmed in subsequent resolutions.18 The UnitedNations Secretary-General’s campaign, UNiTE to End Violence againstWomen, which is associated with the Millennium Development Goals, callsConcluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women:Canada, CEDAW/C/CAN/CO/7, November 7, 2008, para. 4415Ibid, para. 32.16UN General Assembly, In-depth study on all forms of violence against women: report of the SecretaryGeneral, 6 July 2006, A/61/122/Add.1. Para. 284.17UN General Assembly, Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women:resolution adopted by the General Assembly, 30 January 2007, A/RES/61/143.18For example, UN General Assembly, Intensification of efforts to eliminate all forms of violence againstwomen: resolution adopted by the General Assembly, 30 January 2009, A/RES/63/155.146Amnesty International February 2014
A SUMMARY OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL’S CONCERNSon all countries to have adequately-resourced National Action Plans to endviolence against women adopted and underway by 2015.19It should be noted that Canada has played a leading role in the promotion ofinitiatives at the United Nations to end violence against women, includingthese UN resolutions calling for National Action Plans. Canada is notexempt from the position, which it has supported at the UN, that all statesshould adopt National Action Plans to end violence against women.A successful plan would require several elements: A commitment to address violence against Indigenous women andgirls on the basis of the protection and full realization of their humanrights as set out in Canadian law and international human rightsstandards, including the UN Declaration on the Rights of IndigenousPeoples; The collection and routine publication of gender-disaggregated dataon health and social and economic conditions for Inuit, Métis andFirst Nations women, men, girls and boys including rates of violenceagainst Indigenous women and girls; The promotion of standardized protocols for police handling ofmissing persons cases, including tools for fair and effectiveassessment of the risk to the missing individual; Improved coordination of police investigations into long-term missingpersons cases and unsolved murders involving Indigenous womenand girls; Adequate, sustained, and long-term funding to ensure the provisionof culturally relevant services to meet the needs of Indigenouswomen and girls at risk of violence or in contact with the police andjustice system, including emergency shelters, court workers, servicesfor survivors of violence and specific programs to assist women andgirls who have been trafficked within Canada. Immediate measures to ensure that funding for healthcare, housing,education and other services for Indigenous women, children andfamilies are equitable to those available to non-Indigenous people inCanada and sufficient to enable effective protection and fullenjoyment of their rights. Particular priority should be given toeliminating discrimination in funding for child and family services.20To be successful, a National Action Plan must be accompanied by adequatesustained funding to meet its goals as well as means to ensureaccountability to Parliament and to the Indigenous women and their familieswho the plan would serve. Critically, such a plan should be developed incollaboration with Indigenous women’s organizations to ensure their full andeffective participation in defining needs and solutions.http://endviolence.un.org.Amnesty International, No More Stolen Sisters: The Need for a Comprehensive Response toDiscrimination and Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada (2009), p.26.19207Amnesty International Canada February 2014
VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND GIRLS IN CANADAAmnesty International notes that when a previous Parliamentary committeeexamined the issue of violence against Indigenous women and girls, theinterim report made a clear call for “a co-ordinated, holistic approach toviolence against Aboriginal women.”21 This Committee should do no less.National Public InquiryAmnesty International has supported the call by the Native Women’sAssociation of Canada and many others for a national inquiry focused onexposing the nature of this violence and on ensuring government and policeaccountability for an effective and coordinated response. In our experiencemany, if not all, the measures needed for an effective national action plan toend violence against Indigenous women and girls have already beenidentified by Indigenous women’s organizations, frontline service providers,and the families of the missing and murdered. A national inquiry must notbe simply another opportunity to talk about the issues: it must provide aneffective forum for these expert voices to be heard and theirrecommendations implemented.Any national inquiry into violence against Indigenous women and girls mustnecessarily be able to address matters of federal, provincial and territorialjurisdiction. The fact that the majority of provincial and territorialgovernments have endorsed such an inquiry creates an important historicopportunity that should be seized.A national public inquiry into the murder and disappearance of Indigenouswomen and girls would also be an opportunity to mobilize the resourcesnecessary to address past failings to adequately investigate disappearancesand suspicious deaths. Amnesty International recommends that such aninquiry be provided the resources and authority necessary to commissionindepend
VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND GIRLS IN CANADA 2 Amnesty International February 2014 VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND GIRLS IN CANADA BACKGROUND The scale and severity of violence faced by Indigenous women and girls in Canada—First Nations, Inuit and Métis—constitutes a national human rights crisis.
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