A/HRC/33/68 I. Introduction 1. On 16 June 2016, the Human Rights Council convened, pursuant to its resolution 6/30, its annual full-day discussion on the human rights of women. The discussion was divided into two panels: the first focused on the theme “Violence against indigenous women and girls, and its root causes”; the second, on “Women’s rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. II. Violence against indigenous women and girls, and its root causes 2. The first panel discussion was moderated by Chief Wilton Littlechild, lawyer and Commissioner with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and Member of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The panel comprised the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, Dubravka Šimonović; founder and Director of Centro de Culturas Indigenas del Perú (CHIRAPAQ), journalist and indigenous peoples’ rights activist, Tarcila Rivera Zea; indigenous lawyer, founder and Managing Director of the Riverview Global Partners, Josephine Cashman; and the Executive Director of the Yiaku Laikipiak Trust, Jennifer Koinante. A. Statement by the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights 3. In her opening remarks, the Deputy High Commissioner pointed out that violence against indigenous women was a manifestation and a consequence of discrimination, exclusion, isolation and subordination. She drew attention to the intersecting forms of discrimination faced by indigenous women, and how they exacerbated inequalities even further. Multiple and intersecting layers of discrimination exposed indigenous women to a vicious circle of disempowerment and marginalization, the breeding grounds for violence. The pernicious consequences of these multiple drivers of inequality also led to higher-thanaverage rates of infant and maternal mortality, disproportionate rates of early and unwanted pregnancies, higher rates of sexually transmitted infections, and HIV/AIDS; and continued intimidation, gender-based violence, including sexual violence, domestic violence, trafficking and gender-related killings of indigenous women and girls. 4. Poverty also had a disproportionate impact on indigenous women; land appropriation had resulted in their loss of traditional livelihoods. Furthermore, compensation and job skills following land seizure tended to exclude women, in particular indigenous women. The Deputy High Commissioner stressed that young indigenous women faced barriers in their access to education, in particular the burden of domestic and care responsibilities. She furthermore recalled the barriers to exercising freely their human rights with regard to sexual and reproductive health, such as the absence of culturally appropriate sexual and reproductive health information (rarely translated into indigenous languages), geographical isolation from facilities, and lack of access to essential commodities or information relating to legal entitlements. 5. The Deputy High Commissioner recalled that, although the prevalence of violence against indigenous women was still unknown because of the lack of comprehensive data and limited research and analysis, the information available suggested that indigenous women and girls were three times more likely to suffer from violence than other women. The lack of civil and vital statistics – such as on births, marriages and death, with its causes – and the absence of comprehensive census information, including disaggregation, on 2