The B.C. CEDAW group, a coalition of women's and human rights organizations, is denouncing the B.C. government for ignoring the human rights of the province's most vulnerable women.
The group has just released Nothing To Report, an assessment of the B.C. government's response to two urgent recommendations made to Canada in 2008 by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (UN CEDAW). Canada was given one year to report back on steps taken to address police and government failure to deal effectively with violence against Aboriginal women and girls, and women's poverty and inadequate social assistance rates.
The report finds the B.C. government has failed to take any steps to deal with these issues. Nor has B.C. urged the federal government to take action.
"When it comes to addressing the human rights of vulnerable women, the B.C. government's record is abysmal," said BCGEU secretary-treasurer Judi Filion. "This government ought to be ashamed of its failure to meet its international obligations and responsibilities."
The report urges both levels of government to act, citing more than one hundred disappearances and murders of Aboriginal women and girls in B.C., and inadequate social assistance rates.
The BCGEU is a B.C. CEDAW partner. The B.C. CEDAW Group has been monitoring the status of women's equality in B.C. since 2002. Group members include the B.C. Federation of Labour, the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C., the West Coast Women's Legal Education and Action Fund and the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.
Read Nothing To Report [1]
