“In the United States, Sexual violence against women from Indian nations is at epidemic proportions and survivors are frequently denied justice. Native American and Alaska Native women are 2.5 times more likely to be raped than non-Native women. 1 in 3 Native women will be raped during her lifetime. What’s more, many Native survivors of rape and sexual assault will then struggle to receive basic post-rape care. Amnesty International’s report, Maze of Injustice: The Failure to protect Indigenous women from sexual violence in the USA confirmed what Native women and advocates had long known: Native women are denied their basic rights to freedom from violence and to justice.
Sexual violence against Native women is the result of a number of factors and continues a history of widespread human rights abuses against Indigenous Peoples in the U.S. Historically, Indigenous women were raped by settlers and soldiers. Such attacks were not random or individual; they were tools of conquest and colonization. The attitudes towards Indigenous Peoples that underpin such human rights abuses continue to be present in in the U.S. today. They contribute to the present high rates of sexual violence perpetrated against Indigenous women and help to shield their attackers from justice; they contribute to the lack of urgency throughout the U.S. government and society to address such violence and ensure survivors have the care they need.
Native women face significant barriers to securing justice following sexual violence due to insufficient police responses, inadequate health and forensic services, and a lack of prosecutions.”
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