A/HRC/30/41 and discourage reporting by women. When women do come forward, there may be complicated tensions between jurisdictions relating to competence to prosecute, which can create delays and thereby prolong the suffering of the victim and discourage women from reporting violence in the future. Loopholes in the rules governing the relationship between jurisdictions can also make it possible for perpetrators to evade prosecution. Community dynamics and stigma 71. Indigenous systems of governance and power structures are often highly gendered and may exclude women and their perspective from administration of justice and control over the development of social standards and decisions, which impacts women’s vulnerability to abuses of their human rights. Indigenous communities tend to be tight-knit, which can serve to protect perpetrators and silence women, and there is also often a high level of stigma associated with being a victim of violence so that indigenous women are often afraid to report violence for fear of being ostracized within the community. Furthermore, the close-knit nature of indigenous communities and the social stigma of violence may restrict women’s ability to seek justice within other jurisdictions. B. Promising practices 72. Despite the significant constraints facing them, there are many instances where indigenous women having successfully mobilized to fight for their rights. Those successes have led to the development of promising practices in relation to the respect and protection of indigenous women. The following examples of good practice are illustrative and not exhaustive: (a) As observed by the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences, the tribal justice system of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in the United States has an effective infrastructure to provide safety of women within their jurisdiction, including dedicated codes to address domestic violence and training for personnel of tribal law enforcement authorities, tribal courts, prosecutors and probation officers. Furthermore, tribal courts have ordered that offenders enrol in re-education programmes and tribes support programmes to encourage boys and young men to respect women;25 (b) Numerous tribes, such as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, maintain the practice of banishing perpetrators of violence against women from their tribal jurisdictional boundaries. That has proven to be an effective sanction which prevents women and their children from being forced to flee their home due to violence. Banishment is a serious community sanction that cuts off perpetrators and sends a strong message about the protection of women and children in the community. 26 Several Kankanaey Igorot communities in the Cordillera region of the Philippines have customary laws that banish members who have committed rape. Thus, in those communities, incidences of rape are very low compared to urban areas and other provinces. The women of some Kalinga Igorot villages in the same region have succeeded in convincing their traditional leaders to abolish the discriminatory practices of bride price, dowry and arranged marriages; (c) The Working Group on Discrimination against Women in Law and in Practice reported that some Latin American States formally recognize indigenous laws and 25 26 See A/HRC/17/26/Add.5, para. 100. Ibid., para. 102. 19