Violence Against Aboriginal Women

The statistics are sobering.  So sobering that in 2005, the United Nations Human Rights Committee expressed its concern that "Aboriginal women are far more likely to experience a violent death than other Canadian women" and called on Canada to address this violence.

Ten years prior to that report, in 1996 the Canadian government had already acknowledged the seriousness of the problem. According to a 1996 government statistic, young Aboriginal women with status under the Indian Act were five times more likely than all other women to die as a result of violence. (Amnesty International) Other studies had produced similar results:

• A study by the Ontario Native Women's Association (ONWA) entitled, Breaking Free, found that 8 out of 10 Aboriginal women in Ontario had personally experienced family violence.  (1995)
• Aboriginal women are 8 times more likely to suffer abuse than non-Aboriginal women, and of those women, 87% had been physically injured and 57% had been sexually abused (Health Canada, 1997). 

The Native Women's Association of Canada has been documenting the ultimate form of violence - the story of the missing and murdered Aboriginal women. In the last six months the results have started to emerge and it is sobering. As of November, 2008, there were 511 confirmed cases of missing or murdered women in the NWAC database.

• Twenty-five  (25%) or 128 of the women identified are missing women
• 67% are women or 342 have been murdered.
• Just over one-half (53%) are 30 years of age or less at the time of the incident.

Of the women who were murdered, no one has been arrested or charged in 58% of the cases. The comparable rate for cases in Canada involving non-Aboriginal women is 15%.

In all of these studies there are a number of recurring themes

• Racism and discrimination fuels the violence targeted against Indigenous women.
• The historic and continuing marginalization and impoverishment of Indigenous women has pushed many Indigenous women into environments such as unsafe urban areas and the sex trade, where violent predators feel they can attack and murder women with impunity.
• The failure of the Canadian government and society to respond adequately to the frequency and seriousness of this violence, including by ensuring consistent, thorough investigation into reports of missing Indigenous women.

Canadian Aboriginal women leaders are working to address the violence facing Aboriginal women and their families.  A significant step has been the development of the Strategic Framework to End Violence Against Aboriginal Women that offers a unique approach to ending violence.  This framework was developed in partnership with Ontario Native Women's Association and Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres.