UN expert Victoria Tauli-Corpuz interested in missing women
There are two issues in Canada that are important to Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples.
According to her, she’s interested in looking into the impact of oil-sands development on aboriginal peoples, as well as violence against indigenous women, particularly about missing and murdered women.
Tauli-Corpuz, an indigenous person of Kankana-ey Igorot heritage from northern Philippines, will have her chance to do so officially if she gets an invitation from the Canadian government to visit.
“All indigenous peoples in various parts of the world would usually have problems in relation to the protection or respect of their rights,” Tauli-Corpuz told the Straight in a phone interview from Kelowna.
She had been invited by UBC Okanagan to speak at two university events regarding the role of the UN rapporteur’s office in the context of natural-resources extraction in traditional aboriginal territories across the globe.
“There are also Canadian businesses in the Philippines, which also affect indigenous peoples,” Tauli-Corpuz observed, in apparent reference to mining companies.
Last summer, her predecessor, James Anaya, released a report on Canada that recommended, among other things, that resource-development projects “should be fully consistent with aboriginal and treaty rights, and should in no case be prejudicial to unsettled claims”.
Tauli-Corpuz was chair of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues when the body issued a report in 2009 that cited Canada’s missing and murdered aboriginal women. The document urged the Canadian government to provide more services to indigenous women.
On her way back to the Philippines, Tauli-Corpuz will stop in Vancouver for a forum on Thursday (April 2). The event takes place at the Bahay Migrante (Migrant’s House), a Filipino community gathering place at 4794 Fraser Street, starting at 6 p.m.
Comments
2 Comments
A Done Deal
Apr 2, 2015 at 8:12am
I think we already know what she's going to say and one thing for sure it won't be that the majority of violence against aboriginal women is by aboriginal men. All of the attention will be on white men, whether it's Willie Pickton, the RCMP or Harper. The root causes will be ignored in favour of a witch hunt and absolutely nothing will be solved. It would be much more useful if the dangerous environment that aboriginal women live in and the current dynamics in aboriginal culture are examined, but they won't be. Move on people, there's nothing to see here.
The UN?
Apr 2, 2015 at 7:11pm
How about the missing & murdered aboriginal men? A higher rate than women but seemingly neglected because of their genitals. This is standard UN absurdity, a PR job for a bureaucrat with a sinecure. The ridiculous decision to declare Israel a worse human rights offenders than North Korea, China or many other countries is an example of the UN at its worst. The UN maintains the fiction of international equality when everyone knows it is about power & alliances. Getting out of the UN would be a good part of any political platform.