WUNRN
Human RIghts Watch
CANADA - VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS
WOMEN & GIRLS - CALL FOR INDEPENDENT INQUIRY & COMPREHENSIVE NATIONAL
ACTION PLAN
March 7, 2014 (Toronto) – A landmark
Canadian parliamentary report released on March 7, 2014, failed to recommend
needed steps to stem violence against indigenous women, Human Rights Watch said
today. The committee did not recommend either an independent national inquiry
or a comprehensive national action plan on the violence, and made no
recommendations to address accountability for police misconduct.
The House of Commons Special Committee on Violence Against Indigenous Women
presented its report after a year of hearings on the high levels of violence
experienced by indigenous women and girls across Canada.
“The
committee’s weak recommendations represent an acceptance of the shocking status
quo of violence against indigenous women and girls, even by the very people who
are supposed to protect them,” said Meghan Rhoad,
women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The status quo is a state of
constant insecurity for the indigenous women and girls who face threats to
their lives and feel they have nowhere reliable to turn for protection.”
Human Rights Watch research published in February 2013 documented the failure of the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police in northern British Columbia to protect indigenous women and girls from
violence. Human Rights Watch also documented abusive police behavior against
indigenous women and girls, including excessive use of force, and physical and
sexual assault. British Colombia has inadequate police complaint mechanisms and
oversight procedures, and there is no national requirement for independent
civilian investigations into all reported incidents of serious police
misconduct.
Direct Link to Full 95-Page February
2013 Human Rights Watch Report on failure of Royal Canadian Mounted Police in
British Columbia to protect indigenous women and girls from violence:
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/canada0213webwcover_0.pdf
Parliament established the special all-party committee in February 2013 to hold
hearings on the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women and to propose
solutions to address root causes of the violence against indigenous women.
Human Rights Watch said that creating a parliamentary committee was a positive
move but was no substitute for a politically independent national commission of
inquiry into the violence.
On January 30, 2014, Human Rights Watch representatives testified before the committee regarding the
importance of a national inquiry and the need for greater accountability for
police misconduct.
The official committee report contains 16 recommendations, including calls for
a public awareness campaign, “appropriate” sentences for offenders, and a DNA
database for missing persons, which had already been announced in the
government’s budget. Instead of recommending the development of a comprehensive
national action plan, the committee called for an “action plan” to implement
their recommendations. The committee’s recommendations for a victim’s bill of rights
and for government authorities to consider improving data collection on
violence against indigenous women are important steps, but the recommendations
as a whole are insufficient to address the scope of the problem, Human Rights
Watch said.
The committee membership reflected the political balance in Parliament, in
which the Conservative Party holds the majority of seats. The New Democratic
Party (NDP) and the Liberal Party each released dissenting reports on March 7,
both of which recommend a national inquiry and action plan. In explaining the
party’s dissent, the NDP said the official committee report “does not convey
that there is a public safety emergency unfolding in every corner of the
country and that a co-ordinated response is needed to address the high rates of
violence against Indigenous women and girls.” The Liberal Party dissenting
report stated thatthe official committee report “does not recommend any
concrete actions but instead makes a series of stay-the-course, exploratory
recommendations.”
The
Native Women’s Association of Canada has collected data showing that
nationally, between the 1960s and 2010, 582 Aboriginal women and girls were
reported missing or were murdered in Canada. Thirty-nine percent of those cases
occurred after 2000. Comprehensive data is no longer available since the
government cut funding for the organization’s database, and police forces in
Canada do not consistently collect race and ethnicity data.
More
than a dozen countries raised the issue during the periodic review of Canada’s
human rights record by the United Nations Human Rights Council in April. Both
the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights sent delegations to Canada to
investigate.
After
a visit in October 2013 the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous
peoples, James Anaya, endorsed the call for a national inquiry. Canada’s
provinces and territories, the Assembly of First Nations, and many
organizations have made similar calls. Public national inquiries allow for an
impartial investigation into issues of national importance.
“The
committee’s report confirms the concern expressed by skeptics about setting up
a committee at the outset – that the government would use it to avoid taking
decisive action on the issue,” Rhoad said. “With what we have learned about
violence against Canada’s indigenous women, never has the need for a
politically independent national inquiry been clearer.”