UNICEF Canada responds to the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

UNICEF Canada welcomes the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. We acknowledge and honour the contributions of Indigenous women, girls, families, nations, leadership and their allies who have spent the last three years conducting research, providing testimony, and bearing witness from coast to coast to coast.

Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people are rights-holders under a number of international conventions and declarations, and successive Canadian governments have failed to meet their obligations with respect to the realization and protection of those rights. Call for Justice 1.2 reminds all governments in Canada of their responsibility to “immediately implement and fully comply with all relevant rights instruments,” including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), among others.

The report also specifically calls on Canada to ratify the 3rd Protocol to the UNCRC, which concerns the right of an individual or group to communicate any potential violation of their rights to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. UNICEF Canada has consistently called on the Government of Canada to adopt the 3rd protocol, and we remain willing and able to assist Canada in meeting its obligations in this regard.

The complete list of Calls for Justice touches on almost every aspect of Canadian society, highlighting the fact that a fragmented approach will not suffice in addressing the roots of colonial gender violence. We echo the report in calling on the federal government to make the investments in housing, education, food security, and clean drinking water that are necessary to reconciliation and to ending the violence experienced by Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people.

The report is an unequivocal reckoning of Canada’s historical treatment of Indigenous women and girls, and a towering challenge to all Canadians to confront the violence that continues today. UNICEF Canada is committed to doing that work, alongside all Canadians and the Indigenous nations of this land.

To arrange interviews or for more information please contact:
Emily O’Connor
Communications Manager, UNICEF Canada
eoconnor@unicef.ca
Tel./Tél.: +1 416 482 4444 ext/poste 8866 | +1 647 500 4230