IHRP writes joint submission to the UN CEDAW Committee with Human Rights Watch

This week, Human Rights Watch and the International Human Rights Program (IHRP) provided the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women ("the CEDAW Committee") with a joint submission highlighting two areas of concern. First, policing failures and abuses that contribute to Indigenous women's and girls' increased vulnerability to violence; and second, access to safe water and sanitation on First Nation reserve communities in Ontario. The submission contains information about these issues, and includes questions and recommendations for Canada. It was sent to the Committee on the occasion of its eighth and ninth periodic review of Canada, which will take place on October 25, 2016, at Palais des Nations in Geneva.

This review is an opportunity for the CEDAW Committee to report on Canada's compliance with the international Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. As part of the review process, civil society organizations can submit reports to the Committee that provide further nuance on salient human rights issues and, oftentimes, counterbalance Canada's reporting to the Committee. 

Lara Koerner Yeo and Dora Chan, 3L students in the IHRP Clinic this term, are working with Human Rights Watch on investigating and reporting on police treatment of Indigenous women and girls in Canada.

Lara will attend the Committee’s review of Canada in Geneva later this month. 

Read the joint submission online at the website of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.