Ms Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the convenor of the Asian Indigenous Women’s Network and the current UNSRIP has shared her message in the celebration of the International Day of Women via her Facebook account:  

“While we celebrate International Women’s Day, we should not forget the missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada and the US and the rest of the world, the disproportionate number of incarcerated indigenous women in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the US, and the trafficked indigenous women and girls in many countries. We also remember indigenous women who have been forcibly displaced from their traditional territories because of extractive industries, agribusiness expansion, mega-infrastructure projects and militarization. We think of those who have been killed and who are victims of domestic violence and those who have been raped and never saw justice come their way. We think of indigenous women who are suffering from environmental degradation because of the operations of extractive industries and agribusinesses. We think of those who have been criminalized.”

“Let us work together to stop all these and to support the efforts of indigenous women to empower themselves and communities. The big source of hope for the world today is seeing scores of indigenous women becoming empowered individually and collectively, who are asserting their rights and claiming these in the best ways they can. We are seeing more indigenous women strengthening not just themselves but their communities as well. We see them trying their best to adapt to climate change and contribute to climate change mitigation using their traditional knowledge and innovating new ways. We see them trying to address the violence in their communities and homes and addressing conflicts. This International Women’s Day should be celebrated by knowing more about women’s situations and acknowledging and supporting further their efforts to make this world respect, protect and fulfill indigenous women’s collective and individual human rights. We celebrate by committing to do more in terms of practicing, spreading and transmitting the values of solidarity, reciprocity, living in harmony with nature, human rights and sustainability and fighting against racism and discrimination and all forms of human rights violations including violence against women, girls and nature. HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY! MORE POWER TO INDIGENOUS WOMEN AND TO ALL WOMEN.”

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