Stop sterilization of Indigenous women without consent

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Canada: Stop sterilizing Indigenous women without consent

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Urge PM Justin Trudeau to launch an investigation and stop this practice immediately.

Prime Minister of Canada

Justin

Trudeau

Govt of Canada

I am deeply concerned that across Canada and as recently as 2018, Indigenous women report being forced or coerced into sterilization. Some women were incorrectly told the procedure is reversible. Others were separated from their babies immediately after birth until they consented to a tubal ligation. Yet others were sterilized despite vocally objecting to the procedure and without having provided written consent.

No one should be subjected to a medical procedure they have not consented to, and no one should be coerced through misinformation or intimidation tactics into providing consent to any medical procedure.

Every woman has the right to live free from discrimination and violence, with the right to make decisions about if, when, and how to create a family. The forced and coerced sterilization of Indigenous women and girls in Canada is particularly atrocious considering Canada’s long history of rights abuses against Indigenous peoples.

Coerced and forced sterilizations are a serious violation of human rights and must be halted immediately.

Prime Minister Trudeau, I urge your government to fully comply with recommendations made by the UN Committee on Torture and:

- Thoroughly investigate all allegations of forced or coerced sterilizations of Indigenous peoples in Canada;
- Establish policies and accountability mechanisms across Canada that provide clear guidance on how to ensure sterilizations are only performed with free, full, and informed consent; and  
- Provide access to justice for survivors and their families.

Thank you for your prompt attention.

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Sterilizing women without their free, full, and informed consent is a form of violence and torture.

Sterilizing people without their free, full, and informed consent is a form of violence and torture.

After giving birth in a Saskatchewan hospital in 2001, a doctor performed a tubal ligation on 29-year-old *Lisa, leaving her unable to have more children.

She does not remember signing a consent form, but remembers her upset husband saying, “I’m not signing that!” to medical staff. After the surgery, the doctor said, “cut, tied and burned. There. Nothing is getting through that.”

Across Canada and as recently as 2018, Indigenous women report being forcibly or coercively sterilized. Some women were incorrectly told the procedure is reversible. Others were separated from their babies until they consented to a tubal ligation.

Forced and coerced sterilizations of Indigenous women are a result of systemic bias and discrimination against Indigenous peoples in the provision of public services in Canada, a pattern well known and acknowledged by government. They are an assault on the cultural integrity of societies that have already endured grave human rights violations including forced assimilation.

Sterilizing people without their free, full, and informed consent is a form of violence and torture. Measures to prevent births within ethnic or racial groups is explicitly prohibited by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Everyone has the human right to make decisions around if, when, and how to create a family. Everyone a right to live free from violence and discrimination. Everyone a right to health.

Call on Prime Minister Trudeau to take immediate action to end involuntary sterilizations.

Learn more:

Sterlilization of Indigenous women in Canada without consent
Indigenous women in Canada continue to be forcibly or coercively sterilized, November 13, 2018
Defending Consent: In conversation with Alisa Lombard, Lawyer with Maurice Law, November 19, 2018

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Canada: Stop sterilizing Indigenous women without consent

Urge PM Justin Trudeau to launch an investigation and stop this practice immediately.

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Call on Prime Minister Trudeau to take immediate action to end involuntary sterilizations.

Learn more:

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