A/HRC/41/42/Add.1 II. General context 10. Canada has a long-standing record of support at the United Nations for issues relating to violence against women, including the establishment of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur and as the main sponsor of the mandate’s founding resolution of 1994. The Special Rapporteur’s first official visit to Canada to gather first-hand information on the situation of violence against women coincided with the commendable decision by the Government to proclaim itself a feminist Government and to adopt feminist foreign and international assistance policies. However, the Special Rapporteur notes that women lives’ in Canada are still marked by systemic gender-based violence, especially concerning indigenous and other women who encounter multiple forms of discrimination. 11. During her visit to various federal, provincial and territorial jurisdictions, the Special Rapporteur identified a variety of good practices that could be replicated in other provinces and territories, as well as at the global level. She also observed significant gaps and challenges regarding the prevention and protection of women from gender-based violence, particularly regarding indigenous women and girls. 12. Intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence against women in Canada: 8 in 10 victims are women and girls. 1 The rates of female victims of violent crime were eight times higher in the territories and nearly three times higher in the provincial north than in the south.2 Indigenous women are three times more likely to be victims of violence than non-indigenous women. Approximately every 2.5 days, a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.3 In 2017, 84 per cent of police-reported victims killed by an intimate partner were women.4 13. An issue of major concern in Canada is the inadequate protection of indigenous women and girls’ economic, social and cultural rights, which exacerbates the high rate of violence against women. Indigenous women from First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities face violence, marginalization, exclusion and poverty because of institutional, systemic, multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination not addressed adequately by the State. According to 2016 data, indigenous people represent 5 per cent of the Canadian population, with indigenous women constituting 2.5 per cent of the total population. 5 Indigenous women and girls are nevertheless nearly three times more likely to be victimized by violent crime6 and six times more likely to be the victim of homicide than non-indigenous women. 7 Indigenous women and girls encounter multiple forms of discrimination, including inadequate social assistance and housing and a lack of affordable public childcare. The number of indigenous women whose children are removed from their care, a practice that began in the era of residential schools, continues to be high. 8 III. Incorporation of the international framework on women’s rights and violence against women 14. In 1981, Canada was one of the first countries to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. In 2002, it ratified the 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 See Statistics Canada, “Family violence in Canada: a statistical profile, 2017” (2018). In Canada, crime is measured using a combination of both police-reported and victim-reported (self-reported) data. See Statistics Canada, “Police-reported crime in Canada’s Provincial North and Territories” (2015). See Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability, “#CallItFemicide: understanding gender-related killings of women and girls in Canada 2018”. See Statistics Canada, “Homicide in Canada, 2017” (2018); Statistics Canada, “Family violence in Canada: a statistical profile, 2016” (2018). See Statistics Canada, “Aboriginal population profile, 2016 Census” (2018). See Statistics Canada, “Women and the criminal justice system” (2017). See Statistics Canada, “Homicide in Canada, 2017” (2018). See Stand Canada, “Truth and Reconciliation Commission report executive summary”. Available at www.standcanada.org/truth-reconciliation-commission-report-summary/. 3