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Women and children are again left aside at the Crown Gathering with First Nations.
PRESS RELEASEFor immediate releaseWomen and children are again left aside at the Crown Gathering with First Nations.Kahnawake, January 24, 2012 – The Crown Gathering with First Nations is a historical event for all Canada’s Aboriginal Nations, and Quebec Native Women Inc. (QNW) hopes it will mark the beginning of a new and equal relationship between the Government of Canada and the First Nations. However, QNW also deplores the fact that issues specifically concerning women and children are absent from the meeting’s agenda. QNW is concerned by the lack of any item that would allow for discussion of citizenship, social programs (such as education and health) and the fight against poverty beyond the standpoint of economic development. The issue of citizenship is of particular importance to Aboriginal women, since it is they who have been banned from their communities for decades, simply because they married white men. It is also of primordial importance to Aboriginal people in general, because if the communities cannot take back the power to decide on their own membership, and exercise that power in an inclusive way, our Nations are likely to disappear in the short or medium term, under the rules currently used to determine “Indian” status. A new partnership with the Crown must include the question of status and citizenship.Social programs are under-funded for Aboriginal people. This situation has been criticized repeatedly by various United Nations committees. Aboriginal women are hit hardest by poverty, and often find themselves alone and unemployed as they raise their children. In 2000, 36% of Aboriginal women – double the percentage of their non-Aboriginal counterparts - fell into the category of households with revenues below the low income cut-off. This is due among other things to lack of education, spousal violence and the discrimination to which Aboriginal women are subjected.“The focus has been solely on economic development for far too long. Our communities are in a pitiful state and need better access to education, health and sanitary housing,” said Michèle Audette, President of Quebec Native Women Inc. “Without this, there is no possibility for economic development.” Reports by Sisters in Spirit and the First Nations Child and Family Service Caring Society of Canada, led by Cindy Blackstock, have shown that Aboriginal social services are underfunded compared to services for non-Aboriginals, and that this is contrary to the Crown’s obligations and to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by Canada in 2010. Violence against Aboriginal women is endemic and systemic, and true political will is needed to put an end to it. “The meeting must be based on the work done in past decades, at both the political and juridical levels, before this country’s courts of justice, to reassert the rights of Aboriginal peoples,” said Michèle Audette. The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the Kelowna Agreement and the Supreme Court’s rulings have continually reminded the Government that not only must it treat the Aboriginal Nations on an equal footing, but also that the rights of those Nations have not always been upheld. According to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples:Article 3Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.Article 4Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing their autonomous functions.Article 9Indigenous peoples and individuals have the right to belong to an indigenous community or nation, in accordance with the traditions and customs of the community or nation concerned. No discrimination of any kind may arise from the exercise of such a right.Article 141. Indigenous peoples have the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning.2. Indigenous individuals, particularly children, have the right to all levels and forms of education of the State without discrimination.3. States shall, in conjunction with indigenous peoples, take effective measures, in order for indigenous individuals, particularly children, including those living outside their communities, to have access, when possible, to an education in their own culture and provided in their own language.Article 211. Indigenous peoples have the right, without discrimination, to the improvement of their economic and social conditions, including, inter alia, in the areas of education, employment, vocational training and retraining, housing, sanitation, health and social security.2. States shall take effective measures and, where appropriate, special measures to ensure continuing improvement of their economic and social conditions. Particular attention shall be paid to the rights and special needs of indigenous elders, women, youth, children and persons with disabilities.Article 221. Particular attention shall be paid to the rights and special needs of indigenous elders, women, youth, children and persons with disabilities in the implementation of this Declaration.2. States shall take measures, in conjunction with indigenous peoples, to ensure that indigenous women and children enjoy the full protection and guarantees against all forms of violence and discrimination.-30-For further information please contact:Aurelie ArnaudCommunications Officer, Quebec Native Women Inc.communication@faq-qnw.org Cell: 514 239 0088