UN committee to investigate missing and murdered Aboriginal women

Friday January 6, 2012

The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) announced it would conduct an inquiry into murdered and missing Aboriginal women in Canada.

The decision came after a call by the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) and the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (CFAI) citing what they say is the Canadian government’s failure to take effective action on the murders and disappearances of Aboriginal women in Canada.

“It’s time we take the government to task on how they treat Aboriginal people and women in particular, especially when Canada has been called to task by the CEDAW,” Jackie Fletcher, spokeswoman for the Nishnawbe Aski Nation Women’s Council (NANWC), said.

“Canada is a signatory to the CEDAW convention, therefore they need to put into action what the convention states,” Fletcher added.

According to a NAN press release, in the past 20 years more than 600 Aboriginal women have gone missing or were murdered in Canada.

The CEDAW is now calling for an examination into the reasons for the failure to investigate the cases and to take the necessary step to remedy the deficiencies in the current system to determine if there is a pattern to the murders and disappearances.

“It is too often that our mothers, daughters, sisters and grandmothers face death in such a tragic way,” said Mike Metatawabin, NAN deputy grand chief. “First Nation women are the centre of our families and they must not be treated as second class citizens.”

“The way which all levels of government have treated our sisters is horrendous,” he added.