Injustices Experienced by First Nations Women and Girls: the AFNQL Turns to the United Nations

Wendake, April 17, 2019 – In the context of the 18th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (April 22−May 3, 2019), the AFNQL will hold a side event in support of using the appropriate UN mechanisms to receive Indigenous women’s discrimination complaints, particularly those who have experienced police abuses in Val-d’Or.

The AFNQL had expressed its intention to use international forums at the hearings of the National Inquiry on Missing and Murdered Women Girls and the Commission on relations between Indigenous Peoples and certain public services in Québec (“Viens Commission”).

The Chief of the AFNQL, Ghislain Picard, will accompany the delegation to New York, composed of the Grand Chief Verna Polson of the Algonquin Anishnabeg Nation Tribal Council, Chief Adrienne Jérôme of Lac Simon First Nation, Ms. Sharon Hunter, from Long Point First Nation, Ms. Viviane Michel, President of Quebec Native Women and AFNQL Attorney Wina Sioui.

The objective of the side event is to expose the injustices that Indigenous women experience in the Quebec justice system and to expose the situation before the international community.

EVENT: “Honoring the victims, bearing the voice of the survivors’

DATE: Wednesday, April 24, 2019 TIME: 6:30−8:00 p.m.

LOCATION: Unites Nations Headquarters (Room 07) 760 United Nations Plaza, New York

The event will be broadcast on Facebook Live here: https://www.facebook.com/APNQL

More information on the UN Forum can be found here: https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/unpfii-sessions-2/18-2.html

About the AFNQL

The Assembly of First Nations of Quebec-Labrador is a political organization uniting 43 First Nations chiefs in Quebec and Labrador. Follow the AFNQL on Twitter @APNQL.