Five ways to take action to stop violence against Indigenous women

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1. Write a letter

Let Canadian government officials know that you are deeply concerned and expect action. A personal letter is one of the most effective ways to demonstrate your commitment. Your letter doesn't have to be long. In fact, a short, simple letter can be just as powerful.

Write to:

The Honourable Anne McLellan
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Safety and
Emergency Preparedness
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

(There's no postage required if you're writing from Canada.)

Express your deep concern about violence against Indigenous women in Canada.

Ask the federal government to take the following steps as a matter of urgent priority:

• Strongly encourage all police forces across Canada to work with Indigenous women’s organizations to identify and implement appropriate and effective protocols for action on missing person cases consistent with the specific risks to Indigenous women and girls.
  
  
• Ensure adequate, sustained, multi-year funding to culturally appropriate services such as shelters and counselling, needed to prevent violence against Indigenous women.
  
  
• Provide adequate funding for comprehensive national research on violence against Indigenous women, including the creation of a national registry to collect and analyze statistical information from all jurisdictions.
  
  

2. Keep writing

Send similar letters to your Member of Parliament. You can find a complete list of MPs here. If you'd like to write a more involved letter, please take a look at Amnesty International's complete list of recommendations to government. Focus on those recommendations about which you have the strongest feelings or have personal or professional insight. And if government officials respond to your letter, take advantage of the opportunity to write back and push for further action.

3. Get others involved

Ask friends, family members and colleagues to take action as well. Petitions are an easy way to involve others. There are two petitions available for downloading and printing from this site. One is addressed to the Prime Minister and calls for further research to better understand and prevent violence against Indigenous women. The second should be sent to your provincial or territorial government and concerns critical factors that increase the risk to Indigenous women.

• Download petition to federal government
  
  
• Download petition to your provincial or territorial government

4. Support the Native Women's Association Sisters in Spirit campaign

On March 22, Amnesty International joined the Native Women's Association of Canada, Canadian churches, and other concerned groups across the country in calling on the federal government to provide adequate and sustainable funding for research and education about violence against Indigenous women, including the establishment of a national hotline and registry to report missing women and register statistics. For more information on the Sisters in Spirit campaign, please click here.

5. Join Amnesty International's global campaign to Stop Violence Against Women

On March 8, 2004 Amnesty International launched a global campaign to stop violence against women. To learn more about this campaign and take action on a range of concerns around the world, please click here.