Research Methods

 To investigate the implications of Canada’s commitment to feminist foreign policy in relation to the rights of Indigenous women and girls to live free from violence, Jordan Bates-Wright, a First Nations woman and student in the Master of International Relations and Globalization at the University of Ottawa, conducted a review of legislation, policy, academic and community-based research. The search focused on the topics of violence against Indigenous and women and girls internationally, the impact of Canadian companies and extractive industries on the rights of Indigenous peoples abroad, Canada’s legal obligations related to the rights of Indigenous peoples internationally, and interventions undertaken or recommended for the Government of Canada in relation to these topics. The research approach intentionally sought out sources based in community-based research and contributions by Indigenous women themselves, as well as research and recommendations by international organizations, civil society organizations, and Canadian government initiatives.

Results

1. Globally, Indigenous women face disproportionately high rates of violence including government neglect; murder; sexual abuse and exploitation; human trafficking; forced and bonded labour; environmental violence; violence associated with armed conflict and against human rights and land defenders; and other harmful practices. However, a lack of disaggregated data collection and research on the topic is a limitation to understanding the extent and prevalence of violence against Indigenous women and girls.

   • In 2006, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) recognized violence against Indigenous women and girls as a grave concern and called on relevant UN agencies to take immediate action to review and report regularly on it.

   • The prevalence of violence against Indigenous women and girls has been attested and demonstrated through research by the Indigenous women’s organizations (Foro Internacional de Mujeres Indígenas 2006; ECMIA 2020); a 2013 joint report by UN Women, UNICEF and other UN agencies; and others (United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues 2012).

   • While countries continue to take measures to address and prevent gender-based violence, and some have even specifically targeted interventions at the protection of Indigenous women and girls, reviews of these initiatives suggest that their effectiveness has been limited by significant shortages in human and financial resources, weak coordination, limited impact due to anti-Indigenous racism and entrenched patriarchal attitudes toward women, and a lack of political will (United Nations 2013).

2. The Final Report of the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls specifically identifies resource extraction projects operating in Indigenous territories as a driving force for violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLBTQIA+ people.

   • Resource extraction industries contribute to gender-based violence through consequences related to a transient workforce, prevalence of harassment and assault in the workplace, shift work, substance abuse and addictions, and extraction driving economic insecurity for Indigenous women (National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls 2019, p. 584-593).

   • The International Indigenous Women’s Forum finds that the correlation between the operation of extractive industries on Indigenous lands and violence against Indigenous women and girls holds true globally as well (Foro Internacional de Mujeres Indígenas 2006, pp.15-20).

   • Resource extraction often forces Indigenous communities to abandon their ancestral lands; restricts and eliminates women’s livelihoods, which often depend on a healthy environment; reinforces women’s economic dependence on men, often leading to increased rates of domestic violence; increases rates of prostitution and sexually transmitted diseases; and leads to an increased demand for women’s labour in the form of care work as a result of sickness in their communities from environmental contaminants (ibid.).

   • Indigenous land and human rights defenders also are also at high risk for  criminalization, physical violence, and assassinations, at a much higher rate than their non-Indigenous counterparts (Tapias Torrado 2022; Scheidel et al. 2020).

3. From 2007 to 2016, at least four United Nations treaty monitoring bodies called attention to human rights violations by Canadian extractive companies overseas and called on the Canadian government to take steps to prevent abuses and facilitate access to justice and remedy (UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 2016; UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women 2016; UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 2007; 2012; UN Human Rights Committee 2015).

   • The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (2007, 2009) specifically addresses the negative impacts of Canadian companies on the rights of Indigenous peoples outside of Canada.

   • Canadian companies compose the majority of the global mining industry and have been at the center of many cases of human rights violations, a large portion of which target Indigenous communities and territories (MiningWatch Canada 2023; Human Rights Watch 2011).

   • At the 6th International Rights of Nature Tribunal in held in February of 2025 in Toronto, a panel of judges and legal experts, Indigenous leaders, and environmental leaders, found 14 Canadian mining companies guilty of violating the rights of nature and exploiting Indigenous lands for resource extraction across three continents. The decisions of the Tribunal are non-binding but have been shown to make an impact on the ground (Morin 2025).

4. Deeply rooted in its colonial origins, Canada has become home to the majority of the world’s mining companies because of the government subsidies, support for speculation, and especially because of the legal haven against litigation that we offer the global extractive sector (Deneault 2012).

   • Canadian taxpayers have provided hundreds of billions of dollars in financing for Canadian companies that frequently engage in human rights abuses and extreme environmental harm through the crown corporation Export Development Canada, which operates with next to no oversight or accountability (Above Ground 2019).

   • Faced with mounting domestic and international pressure to prevent human rights abuses by Canadian companies operating overseas and to hold them accountable when abuses do occur, in 2018 the Government of Canada established the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise and committed to giving the Ombudsperson the power to compel witness testimony and documents  (MiningWatch Canada 2023).

   • Yet five years later, in 2023 the Government of Canada reneged on its commitment amid forceful lobbying by the Canadian Mining Association among others (ibid.). As of December 2025, the position of Ombudsperson has been vacant since May, the resources and powers necessary to compel companies to comply with investigations are still being withheld, and at least 36 complaints are awaiting decision.

   • Organizations like the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability are now advising those who have been harmed by Canadian companies to approach the CORE with caution given that the office lacks the minimum powers to be effective and plaintiffs risk retaliation, as well as wasting their time and resources (Gilchrist-Blackwood 2023; 2025).

   • In 2017, the British Columbia Court of Appeal’s decision in the case García v. Tahoe Resources Inc. set the legal precedent that Canadian courts can assume jurisdiction over human rights claims against Canadian companies for abuses committed abroad. Despite the ruling, very few of these cases have made it to trial in nearly ten years since the decision, highlighting ongoing barriers to justice for plaintiffs (Findlay 2019).

5. By legally and financially supporting Canadian companies that commit human rights abuses internationally, Canada exports violence to the world, with disproportionate impacts on the rights of Indigenous women and girls at home and overseas.

   • As such, Canada is in violation of its obligations under international law, namely the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Forced Labour Convention of 1930, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, among others.

   • Canada also continues to contradict its own legislative and policy commitments in its decision to support and allow Canadian companies to continue to commit environmental and human rights abuses abroad, namely its stated commitments to corporate social responsibility (Global Affairs Canada 2014; Ciupa and Zalik 2020), feminist foreign policy (Global Affairs Canada 2017), and the rights of Indigenous peoples (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act 2021; Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada 2021).

Policy Lessons

1. The government of Canada must uphold its stated commitments and its requirements under international law by implementing mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence legislation. Such legislation must require Canadian companies to respect all human rights and the environment in their overseas operations, including those of their subsidiaries and contractors by:

   • proactively preventing harm by conducting regular gender-based human rights and environmental impact assessments;

   • reporting publicly on all actual and potential risks identified; and

   • taking steps to address any identified risks and ensure human rights and environments are not harmed.

2. As a matter of immediate urgency, the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) must be given the powers to compel companies to comply with investigations and to legally hold them accountable.

3. Pursuant to Canada’s Feminist Foreign Assistance Policy, and as a form of reparations for incalculable harms it has committed and enabled, Canada should provide capacity funding and assistance to Indigenous women’s organizations in Canada to support transnational solidarity work, and to Indigenous women’s organizations internationally to support their capacity to fight, respond to, and prevent violence gender-based violence.

   • In particular, Global Affairs Canada should commit to providing capacity funding and in-kind technical support to the International Indigenous Women’s Forum to support their capacity building and resource and knowledge exchange programs. The funding provided should be legislatively required, at minimum, to be equivalent to the financing provided to Canadian extraction companies operating in Indigenous territories internationally.