Indigenous Activists at COP26 Blame Big Oil for Worsening Violence Against Native Women

Indigenous protesters from around the world staged a memorial at the COP26 climate summit to draw attention to the connection between the oil and mining industries and the ongoing violence toward Indigenous women and queer, transgender and “two-spirit” people (who identify as both masculine and femininet), reports The Lily for the Washington Post. In the United States, Indigenous women face murder rates that are 10 times higher than the national average. And in Canada, Indigenous women accounted for 16 percent of female homicides between 1980 and 2012, but only 4 percent of the population.

Activists say this violence is exacerbated by extractive industries such as fossil fuels, logging and mining employing “man camps” of workers that pose dangers to the women in Indigenous communities that they migrate through with little accountability. The influx of a male-dominated transient workforce in Indigenous territories correlates with increased rates of sexual violence, sexually transmitted diseases and human trafficking. Experts say that women and girls will be disproportionately impacted by climate change. In addition to sexual violence, women are more exposed to economic instability, displacement and death, and girls could be subject to removal from school or early marriage.