In a report, the RCMP provided further substantiation to its conclusion, made public earlier this month, that 1,017 Indigenous women and girls were murdered between 1980-2012, a homicide rate at least four times higher than that faced by all other women.

The report also identifies 164 unresolved cases of Indigenous women and girls who have been missing for 30 days or longer.

While Amnesty International welcomes the efforts made by the RCMP to research and make public these statistics, we are deeply concerned by the fact that the national police service had not previously sought to clarify the extent of violence faced by Indigenous women and girls.

“As the RCMP report acknowledges, accurate and comprehensive information on the rates of violence faced by Indigenous women and girls is essential to developing effective prevention strategies,” said Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada’s English Branch. “Why then has this information never been researched and made available before, despite the many, many years of Indigenous women demanding action to address the threats that they face? For that matter, why have the RCMP not previously acknowledged the gaps in their own knowledge of this critical issue of public safety?”

While the RCMP has characterized the new report as the “most comprehensive data that has ever been assembled by the Canadian policing community on missing and murdered Aboriginal women”, the new rep ...

To view the full story, you must be a subscriber. Click here for information on how to subscribe.

 

Tags: ,