The Human Rights Clinic has a number of projects focused on Indigenous women's rights.
• In 2024, the Clinic collaborated with the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center (NIWRC) on a factsheet on Foster Care as a Driver of Homelessness in Indigenous Communities in the U.S.
• In 2023, the Human Rights Clinic developed a factsheet on Indigenous Peoples and the Right to Water.
• In March 2021, the Clinic produced an advocacy brief and U.N. submission on behalf of Indigenous women leaders on the interpretation of the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) with respect to Indigenous women and girls. The submission was drafted on behalf of MADRE and FIMI to inform the CEDAW Committee’s development of a new General Recommendation on the rights of Indigenous women and girls.
• The Clinic has further addressed the intersection of gender-based violence against Indigenous Peoples and environmental justice.
- A series of reports developed in 2021 provide a human rights framework to address gender and environmental violence, a synopsis with key recommendations, and case studies focused on Pipelines and Man Camps on Indigenous Lands in the Northern United States and on Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, submitted to the CEDAW Committee and U.N. Working Group on discrimination against women and girls. Please also find a complementary case study on Environmental Destruction, Land Dispossession, and Gender-Based Violence against Indigenous Peoples in Brazil, developed by the Benjamin B. Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
- In 2022, The Clinic submitted a report, The Climate Crisis and Gender-Based Violence against Indigenous Peoples: Impacts and Responses, to the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women.
- In 2022, the Clinic published Human Rights at Home blogs on Celebrating World Water Day by Calling for Respect for our Environment and Indigenous Communities and Past Time for Respect for Indigenous Peoples and the Environment.
• In 2021, the Human Rights Clinic produced a report on the impacts of COVID-19 on Indigenous Peoples and women, in particular.
• In 2021, the Human Rights Clinic produced a report on the “Rights of Nature and Indigenous Communities.” For more information on the Clinic’s work on the rights of Nature, please also see the Clinic’s report on the rights of rural and Indigenous women in Ecuador and advocacy brief and CEDAW submission on the rights of Indigenous women and girls.
• Additionally, the Human Rights Clinic advocates on behalf of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada, along with Canadian partner organizations.
- In February 2019, the Human Rights Clinic contributed to a written and oral submission before the Canadian National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, with a report focused on the right to truth. Read the web story and partners' press release.
- On March 26-28, 2012, the Human Rights Clinic presented at a thematic hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in British Columbia, Canada. The Clinic partnered on this project with the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) and the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA).
Resources and Media Coverage
- The Clinic's Briefing Paper to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for our Thematic Hearing on March 28, 2012 on Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women and Girls in British Columbia, Canada
- Video of the March 28, 2012 IACHR Thematic Hearing
- About the HRC's trip to DC
- Complaints Regarding Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in British Columbia, Canada, Human Rights Brief, American University Washington College of Law, Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (April 2, 2012)
- About the IACHR thematic hearing
- Native Women's Association of Canada Report, What Their Stories Tell Us: Research Findings from the Sisters in Spirit Initiative
- Amnesty International Report, No More Stolen Sisters: The Need for a Comprehensive Response to Discrimination and Violence against Indigenous Women in Canada
- BC CEDAW Group, Nothing to Report: A Report on Progress in Implementing Priority Recommendations made by the Committee in its 2008 Concluding Observations on Canada
