UNECE Regional Review Meeting on Beijing+30
21-22 Oct 2024, Geneva
Below text is a statement by ONWA and CRIAW which was written - but not delivered - for the session "Item 6: Women in leadership and their full and equal participation in decision-making in the ECE region".. Learn more about the regional review here.
Thank you Chair.
Gagee Ge Be Kweg indigo, biizhew dodem, Kenora, On nindoonji
My name is Ingrid Green. I am here with the Ontario Native Women’s Association (ONWA) —the oldest and largest Indigenous women’s organization in Canada.
I am here amplifying the collective voices of almost 40 Indigenous women’s organizations and groups.
I would like to thank the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW) for supporting our participation – it is critical that Indigenous women’s voices are not silenced in this space, and that others do not speak for us. ONWA and CRIAW work together and are part of a larger network of organizations committed to implementing the Beijing Declaration.
Indigenous women have inherent leadership rights and have always been leaders in our families, communities, and nations.
While colonization and ongoing colonial practices and policies disrupted our leadership, our right to leadership is inherent and must be upheld.
“Women in leadership and decision making” is not just about holding political office – It is about upholding Indigenous women’s inherent leadership right and our right to be included in decision making on all issues that impact our lives, our families, and our communities. We hold the solutions to the issues we face.
Indigenous women must be included in decision making not just at a regional or State level but also within the United Nations.
It is our inherent right as life givers and water and land defenders to speak on our own behalf and represent ourselves, our families and our future generations.
This inherent right is affirmed under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, CEDAW General Recommendation No. 39.
We are concerned to see that the Beijing Declaration of Indigenous Women – drafted in 1995 by Indigenous women leaders from around the world who gathered at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing – has not been included any discussion for this session.
The Beijing Declaration of Indigenous Women is a wholistic and comprehensive document that recognizes our relationship with and responsibilities to Mother Earth. It includes recommendations that uphold our inherent and collective rights to self-determination, to our territories, development, education, health, intellectual and culture. And, it provides specific recommendations that acknowledge that Indigenous women’s experiences of violence and discrimination, and the context in which it occurs, are different from that of non-Indigenous women.
Our experiences must be understood through the racism, sexism and discrimination we face both as women and as Indigenous peoples.
Excluding the voices of Indigenous women is a propagation of paternalistic and systemically racist and sexist tactics that have long contributed to Indigenous women's marginalization and silencing.
Without engagement with, and solutions led by and for Indigenous women, we will continue to have our safety compromised, experience disproportionate involvement with the child welfare system and overrepresentation in the justice system, and have our social determinants of health impacted.
The failure to adopt an approach to leadership and decision making that is inclusive of Indigenous women is a fundamental barrier to the advancement of human rights in the UNECE region and around the world.
Indigenous women’s inherent right to participate in decision making on all issues that impact our lives must be upheld.