A/HRC/30/41 courts in their constitutional laws, but that devolution of power was conditional on respect for and enforcement of women’s rights by the indigenous legal system;27 (d) In Latin America, the use of quota systems to ensure the political representation of women has had some success. Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Colombia, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru, among others, have adopted electoral laws that include ethnic and gender quotas aimed at increasing indigenous women’s participation in political processes. For example, the Act on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men of Peru specifically refers to the participation of indigenous women in public decision-making;28 (e) The Saskatchewan Provincial Court in Canada instituted a new court that addresses a critical barrier to access to justice by conducting court proceedings in the Cree language. The Cree Court takes into account traditional values when sentencing, encourages the participation of community leaders and explicitly acknowledges the cultural traditions of the First Nations. This innovative court structure reduces the negative impact of barriers to access to justice while, at the same time, realizing indigenous peoples’ rights to self-determination and equal participation in the justice system;29 (f) A number of agencies and mechanisms within the United Nations system, including several special procedures mandates, treaty bodies and UN Women, have recently dedicated attention and resources to the issue of indigenous people’s rights. For example, UN Women has included the needs of indigenous women in their engagement with the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, mainstreamed women’s rights into the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples and delivered a range of regional and country level initiatives to indigenous women on economic empowerment, violence against women, political participation and broader capacity-building;30 (g) Since the early 1990s, several networks of indigenous women have been established in Australia, the Arctic, Latin America, North America, Africa and Asia, including Enlace Continental de Mujeres Indígenas de las Américas, Asia Indigenous Women’s Network, African Indigenous Women’s Organization, Sami Women’s Organization. These groups have impacted policy debates through the sharing of experiences and joint advocacy on issues of concern. V. Conclusions and recommendations A. Conclusions 73. Indigenous women and girls experience complex, multidimensional and mutually reinforcing human rights violations. Abuses of indigenous women’s collective; economic, social and cultural; and civil and political rights are varied and severe. Those violations are alarming infractions on their own, but constitute a form of structural violence against indigenous women whereby they are victimized by the realities of the circumstances of their everyday life and routinely excluded from enjoying the rights and resources otherwise guaranteed to citizens. Indigenous women 27 28 29 30 20 A/HRC/29/40, para. 56. E/C.19/2013/10, paras 38-42. University of Colorado Law School, American Indian Law Clinic, Report on indigenous women’s rights, prepared for the Special Rapporteur, 2015. UN-Women, “Submission to the United Nation Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on UN-Women’s programmatic initiatives in support of the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2013-2014)”, 2014.

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