Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada

Gender 305 Gender and International Human Rights

This podcast explores how Indigenous women have and still are having their rights violated and how these violations are not being addressed by the colonial government. The fact that the rights of Indigenous women come second to human rights, and how they are treated like “add ons.” We hope to provide information and discuss resources to inform people about not only the issue but how to get involved in meaningful ways that support Indigenous women and their rights. We discuss the importance of using a gendered lens in order to see the whole scope of the issues surrounding violence against Indigneous women in Canada.

Some topics our group debates involve man camps for pipeline projects currently taking place in Indigenous communities. Man camps create a violent space for Indigenous women because of the increased number of attacks in the locations where the camps are set up. The colonial Canadian government has plans to expand pipeline projects which inevitably leads to an increase in man camps in and around Indigenous peoples land and thus leads to an increase in violent attacks on Indigenous women in those areas. Framing the relevance to the fact that capitalism is more important than Indigenous Women in the colonial mind. We also talk about The Red Dress Movement as a statement of bringing awareness to the violence on Indigenous women's bodies and we will therefore expand on ideas surrounding that movement. We will also discuss the ever-growing number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls along a stretch of highway in British Columbia known as the highway of tears in relation to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Report (MMIGW+2S). Our group will also explore the topic as it relates to the ongoing work on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission 94 Calls to Action, and the fact that only a few of the recommendations have been put into place and practice.

References
Johnstone, R. (2006). Feminist Influences on the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies. Human Rights Quarterly, 28(1), 148–185. https://doi.org/10.1353/hrq.2006.0005
Kuokkanen, R. (2012). Self-Determination and Indigenous Women's Rights at the Intersection of International Human Rights. Human Rights Quarterly: A Comparative and International Journal of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Law. 34(1), 225-250. https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/hurq34&id=1&collection=journals&index=#
National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. (2019, May 29). Final report. MMIWG. Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://www.mmiwgffada.ca/final-report/ Reilly, N. (2019). Women, Gender, and International Human Rights: Overview. In International
Human Rights of Women (pp. 1–18). Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8905-3_23
Zwingel, S. (2013). International Feminist Strategies: Strengths and Challenges of the Rights-Based Approach. Politics & Gender, 9(3), 344–351.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X13000226