PRESS CONFERENCE BY CANADA NATIVE WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION

The Native Women’s Association of Canada announced today at a Headquarters press conference that the Canadian Government would provide $5 million over five years to support its “Sisters in Spirit” initiative, aimed at focusing attention on violence against aboriginal women across Canada.

In parallel to the fourth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, whose two-week annual meeting in New York is set to conclude on Friday, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, informally known as “NWAC” launched its campaign in March 2004 in response to the estimated 500 missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada.  Briefing correspondents were:  Sherry Lewis, the NWAC’s Executive Director; Fred Caron, Assistant Deputy Minister for Indian and Northern Affairs of Canada; and Rodolfo Stavenhagen, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous women.

Ms. Lewis explained that the NWAC’s goals were to promote, enhance and foster the social, economic, cultural and political well-being of First Nations and métis women within First Nations, métis and Canadian societies.  The NWAC believed in the fundamental human rights of indigenous women in Canada.  In the United Nations Special Rapporteur’s report on his mission to Canada, Mr. Stavenhagen recommended that particular attention be paid by specialized institutions to the abuse and violence of aboriginal women and girls, especially in the urban environment.

Drawing attention to Amnesty International’s 2004 report, entitled “Stolen Sisters:  Discrimination and Violence against Indigenous Women in Canada”, she said it found that, in the last 30 years, an estimated 500 aboriginal women had gone missing or been murdered in Canada.  For those reasons, the NWAC had made “racialized” and “sexualized” violence against aboriginal women in Canada one of its priorities, and it developed its “Sisters in Spirit” campaign in response.  The campaign would work on research, public education and policy reform.

Given the systemic nature of violence against those women, the campaign needed to look seriously at awareness-raising and standard-setting, which would ultimately lead to Government and State acceptance and implementation of international standards, she said.  The campaign would also seek to develop and implement innovative strategies to make the prohibition of violence against women a global reality, including the protection of women’s rights and equal access to justice for women who had suffered violence, in accordance with international law obligations, including creation of monitoring mechanisms to ensure compliance.

She said she was very pleased that the Canadian Government had taken seriously the Association’s request for immediate action to address that issue.  The Association embraced the challenges ahead, but it also recognized that the contributing factors behind the violence within those communities could not be eradicated or changed quickly.

The right of indigenous peoples to live free from violence was a human right and one that needed to be protected and promoted, both nationally and internationally, she said.  And, aboriginal women should be informed and educated on issues of violence and abuse.  It was only once they had that knowledge that would enable them to act in ways that were life-affirming and empowering.  The NWAC would ensure that programmes, services and tools were unique and appropriate to women in the particular communities in which they resided.

Mr. Caron said that the Canadian Government was proud to be a partner in that initiative with the NWAC.  He complimented the Association’s leadership in putting together the proposal, adding that no amount of violence was acceptable.  That was a serious issue and he was pleased to take at least a first step towards remedying those problems.

Mr. Stavenhagen added his voice of satisfaction to the latest development, and also congratulated the NWAC and the Canadian Government for having taken that important step.  During his official visit to Canada, he had heard a lot of testimony and evidence about discrimination against women and girls, particularly in the urban environment.  The issue was of great concern to native women, and he had heard the message very clearly that something must be done.

Asked how Canada compared to other countries in that regard, he said it was impossible to give a straight answer to that, as he did not engaged in the game of making international comparisons.  The fact was, however, that violence against women was a generalized problem facing indigenous people around the world.  In all of his visits as Special Rapporteur in the last few years, he had heard about that problem in every instance in every country.  Women had provided him with supporting evidence of violence and discrimination at national and local levels, and sometimes even within their own communities and institutions.

Different countries faced those issues in a different way, he said, adding that he had been very pleased at the very open and positive response of the Canadian Government and public opinion there.

In terms of certain issues that were specific to Canada in dealing with indigenous persons, the violence aside, he said the first problem was one of urbanization.  People were moving from traditional communities to sometimes hostile urban environments.  Women and adolescent girls, in particular, often fell into traps of gender and ethnic discrimination.  The phenomenon of urbanization should be addressed by all countries wherever it happened.

He explained that Canada had had the experience of residential schools, where a whole generation or more of indigenous peoples had suffered from discriminatory cultural laws and policies, which had greatly affected them.

Asked for more detail about the campaign, Ms. Lewis said that the Association was finding more and more women who were expressing concerns about the high rates of violence, specifically the plight of young women leaving the community and then never hearing from them again.  The campaign would document life histories and try to understand what was leading aboriginal women into harm’s way and what interventions could better help them try to find their way.

She said she suspected the campaign would hear a lot about “residential school syndrome” and the inter-generational affects.  Because of legislation, including the Indian Act, which had targeted aboriginal woman, many were going into urban areas because they could not reside in the communities where they were born.  She wanted to begin to analyse that and consider policy and legislative changes.  The usual safety nets in Canada of the police and justice system never caught aboriginal women coming to harm.

There were several reasons why it had taken so long to put the issue on the map, she replied to another question.  For one thing, aboriginals had not had an opportunity to speak out.  In addition, matrimonial property on a reservation was a huge issue.  If a woman had to walk away from everything she had in order to escape violence, she might hesitate.  She wanted to look at the change that had occurred for women in the last 20 years since adoption of the Indian Act.

Prior to that, prior to 1985, if an indigenous woman married a non-indigenous man, she lost all of her rights, including the right to live on a reservation, the right to live within her culture.  That had forced her to urban areas, and that casting out had happened for well over 100 years.

Replying to a question about the pool of talent of aboriginal actors, she said she thought it was easier than before for them to enter that industry, which was starting to recognize the abilities of aboriginal actors playing the roles of aboriginal people in film and theatre.

Mr. Caron added that there were performance awards each April, broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Channel (CBC), in which aboriginal people were competing on an equal basis with the rest of Canada.  There was a real talent there, and the broadcast received one of the highest television ratings in Canada.

Ms. Lewis, in response to another question, said that the Permanent Forum had provided indigenous people with an excellent avenue to put forward their issues.  Last year, indigenous women had made several interventions, and they had worked on the draft declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.  It revitalized her Association to see other advocates here and know their successes and challenges.  It was rare to get the opportunity to do international work, which allowed consideration of the issues from very different perspectives.

Mr. Caron clarified that the Government’s support of $5 million had already been announced in Ottawa, Canada.  While his Government’s support of the campaign had admittedly been “a while in coming”, it had also been trying to address some of the root causes, such as poverty, through a score of other initiatives.  While an urban aboriginal strategy, some years in the making, was only now getting off the ground, the Government had already identified women’s issues as a top priority, especially those facing single women in urban areas.

Also, the Prime Minister had begun a series of discussions last year with aboriginal leaders of the provinces, through which targets for improvement had been identified, he added.  Part of the process in identifying targets for action would be to look at things through a “gender lens”.

In terms of whether the Permanent Forum had prompted the Canadian Government to pay more attention to the issues of the indigenous, he said he had not thought it had changed because of that, per se, since Canada had been very active in that regard from the start, but it had certainly helped the way it looked at things by being able to compare notes with the rest of the world.

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