How Does Violence Affect Aboriginal Women

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In Canada, Aboriginal women have experienced historical violence and brutality that still continues to this day. This abuse affects aboriginal women physically, financially, socially, emotionally and spiritually. Nearly 1,200 aboriginal women have been murdered or have gone missing in Canada in the last 30 years alone. (MacCharles, 2014) In Canada, Aboriginal women are five times more likely than other women to die as a result of violence. (Cooper & Salomons, 2010) Despite that women in general are submitted to victimization, Aboriginal women not only experience it more severely, but more violently. (Brennan, 2009) Violence affects Aboriginal women and girls in their own families and communities, and even more so within non-Indigenous communities …show more content…

(Amnesty, 2014) This issue not present in just one specific or provincial area, but is well spread across the country and is still a growing problem. In response to this crisis, many non government organizations are conducting research and spreading awareness both nationally and internationally such as the Amnesty International Stolen Sisters (2004) and No More Stolen Sisters (2009) reports. (Cooper & Salomons, 2010) But even with these efforts, studies continue to show that violence against Aboriginal women in Canada continues to be a persistent and ongoing problem. (Brennan, …show more content…

Canada is supposed to be a discrimination free/protected country; therefore, everyone is supposed to be treated equally and fairy. In 2015, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released revolutionary reports on the situation of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada. CEDAW found Canada to be in violation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women. The IACHR report, similarly, found that Canada is legally required to improve its response to the violence, pursuant to its obligations under the Charter of the Organization of American States and the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man. (Yeo, 2016) Demands for national inquiries for missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada have been surfacing for decades, and yet the problem still exists within our society

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