Climate of Violence

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a global public health, human rights and international legal challenge that impacts at least 1 in 3 women, girls and gender-nonconforming persons globally. Against this backdrop of abuse, the climate crisis is displacing communities at increasing rates, threatening livelihoods, cultures and ways of life. Indigenous women and girls are at the epicentre of both of these crises. Yet, policy makers have been slow to respond despite the incredible efforts of Indigenous women leaders and civil society organizations to call attention to the disproportionate impacts of GBV on Indigenous lives, and to sound the alarm on climate change well before the current state of emergency.

Our Project

TGP is working with the Human Rights Clinic (HRC) at the University of Miami Law School and AIMPO to develop a participatory and community-collaborative approach to documenting the intersections of gender-based violence, climate change and Indigenous lives.

Our Approach

Over the summer of 2020 law students interning with the HRC have prepared a comprehensive review of international and regional human rights legal frameworks on climate change, GBV and the rights of Indigenous peoples, while TGP’s Emerging Researchers have been conducting their own review of the policy and ‘grey’ literature, including advocacy papers, blogs and websites from Indigenous-led organizations, human rights organizations, charities and international bodies. To ensure our work foregrounds Indigenous voices and perspectives, both TGP and the HRC are working with our existing Indigenous partners, such as AIMPO to develop and carryout our respective work streams. We are also reaching out to scholars, activists and Indigenous-led organizations working at the intersection of climate justice, gender justice and Indigeneity who may be interested in speaking to us, and/or collaborating with us as we move forward with the project.

Our Aims

Our goals are to prepare a policy brief for presentation during a side-event at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in 2021 and to obtain funding to bring together our various collaborators and partner organizations. We also hope to prepare a submission to the Committee for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which will be developing a General Recommendation focused on Indigenous women and girls in 2021.