Good Example Of Argumentative Essay On Missing And Violent Victimization Of Aboriginal Women

In Canada there has been public outcry in regards to violence committed against aboriginal women and children. Aboriginal women are lured or coerced from reservation into prostitution in urban centers. Many are addicted to drugs and alcohol and must resort to prostitution to survive. The kidnappers or pimps are majority family or band members and assault and murder these women. Unfortunately the precedent setting Glade judgment affords more lenient sentencing to these offenders, which returns them to the community to re-offend. Aboriginal author Thomas King in his book the inconvenient Indian has had negative commentary of a past royal commission on aboriginal people. It would seem that society has failed aboriginal women (King, 2013).
The women were kidnapped from their reserve areas and taken to the urban centers. With no education and very few skills if any, they turned to prostitution. For those who had a few skills, it was difficult to apply the same in the urban centers. It was the only way to survive in the urban centers. In turn they also turned to alcohol and drug abuse. The women were then assaulted and later killed.
Justice was not served to the poor women. The offenders get away with the crimes. Sentences given to some of the offenders are also not lenient. The offenders get a short jail term or even none at all. They go back to the societies. The offenders never learn. Back in the societies, the offenders harass more women and the trend continues becoming some sort of cycle.

Prevalence

In 2014, around 1,000 aboriginal women and girls were kidnapped and some were even murdered. Initially, the reported cases of the aboriginal girls and women were about 600 and had grown to 1,186 in a span of a very short time period. In a span of 30 years, 1,000 aboriginal women and girls had been murder. Other 186 women and girls had also disappeared in the same time period (The Canadian Press, 2014).

Recommendations

Enactment of strict laws
The Canadian government should introduce tough laws in the country. Obviously, there are already existing laws, which are the rules and regulations that govern the particular area. The laws should be enforced on the offenders and in the general community as a whole. The laws will act as a guide to the general public and bring sanity to the community. The laws set have to have the stipulated punishments for an individual who breaks them. The laws should highly condemn malpractices such as the victimization of the women and children (Covell, 2007).
Those who are involved in the murdering of women should as well be punished as in the stipulated laws. When justice is served to the women, it will not erase the past happens but rather it will offer them some piece of mind and it will offer some satisfaction in that the women will be assured that no other women will have to go through that which is humiliating and degrading.

Sensitization of the society

The society is the main cause of the women’s troubles. If the society stands up against the injustice that women have to go through, there will be such a great change in the community (Smart, 2009). The family and the society are an individual’s main source of foundation and the two greatly influence who or how an individual is to become. They are different ways to reach out and sensitize a society and community as a whole.

Religious groups

The different religious groups can be used to educate the society. Religious leaders are highly respected in the societies in which they are. People also tend to think high of the religious leaders. People from different societies look up to the religious leaders and sometimes go to the extent of asking for the opinions when making decisions. It is evident how much influence they have on a society.
Religious leaders can be advised to speak to the congregation and teach them on the disadvantages of mistreating and victimizing the women. First, it is important to educate the religious leaders themselves. Growing up in a community with such vices will be quite difficult to wake up and tell people to stop practicing the various acts. Teaching the religious leaders will give offer an insight to them and realize the cons of the practices. In return, the knowledge will be passed on to the people of the particular societies.

Education

The education system in the affected areas should provide a curriculum that addresses the particular issues. The young children attending school will from an early age learn what is right and what is wrong and the occurrences of the offences will reduce in number significantly. Embracing education in a society will reduce illiteracy significantly.
An educated society will manage to stand up for their rights and the rights of the minority. Offenses will therefore reduce in the areas. When people are educated, the learn how to earn a living without necessary being involved in crimes. Both the crime and poverty levels will reduce. It will be noted that the malpractices will also reduce since some of the offences people get themselves in is a result of poverty. The education system should also be such that it motivates more girls to attend school.

Administration

In most societies, there is a hierarchy of administrations, who are authoritative and are in charge of what happens in the society. Just like the religious leaders, the administrations are people who are highly regarded in their respective society and their primary role is to ensure that people keep the law. Many people actually fear the administration. It is possible to realize that with the right people in the administration, crimes and inhuman offences can reduce.
The first step is to teach all the administrative persons the pros and cons of the various practices in their society. In most societies, most people live as large families. The heads of the different families can also accompany the administration to learn different things. If it is not possible, the administrative persons who are nearest to the community should educate all family heads about the malpractices. The family heads should then teach their family members. All people in the society will have learnt the rights and the wrongs.
The administration persons should create laws to prevent the offences from being committed. Punishments for bending the law should also be clearly stipulated. The laws should then be enforced on the people. Once a person bends the laws, the stipulated punishments should be administered. It will act as a lesson to the rest of the community. It will also install some fear to the offenders who will in turn quite from their bad practices.

Empowerment of women and the girl child

The women, girls and children are the victims of violent victimization and in some cases, murder. It doesn’t have to be other people or the society that stands up for the women. The women can stand up for themselves (Carbert, 2006). Giving the women the support they need, which may be psychological, is enough to reduce and almost completely eradicate the victimization. Possible ways to support and empower the women are explained below.

Education for the girl child

Lack of knowledge is to some extent responsible for what happens to the women. The women don’t know or don’t understand that they have rights. Growing up in a society where majority of the women are mistreated and harassed, it is possible to think that that is the treatment that women should get. However, it should be included in the education system to teach pupils and students the human rights. The young girls will understand and know their rights and they will stand up for the women (Carbert, 2006). Justice should also be served to the victims of various malpractices.
Poverty is another contributing factor to the victimization of women. Most women born and raised in the reserves were the greater potentials of victimization. The women had no education and most of them had no skills. For the few with skills, it was difficult to apply the same once taken to the urban centers. Educating women will therefore aid in eradication of poverty. The women can acquire different skills from the schools which can be used to earn a living. Offering women job opportunities will help earning a living through justified means rather than prostitution which is responsible for downgrading the women’s esteem and exposing the women to drug and substance abuse.

Funding of women groups

The women should be advised to come up with self help groups. In the groups, ideas and skills can be shared. Women with particular skills can come together and work together. For instance, if a group of women are good at weaving, working together will help to produce more products. The products can then be sold and the revenue obtained from the sales can be used by the women to meet their various needs. Young girls who also have an interest in a particular skill can join the women practicing the skill. The girls learn and acquire skills from an early stage. It is important for the girls to learn to be independent and learn that earning a living should be done through the right channels, without bending the law and without degrading ones morals.
The society is responsible in empowering the women significantly. Ones the women have come up with different products, the society should help them by buying the products. If the women make products and nobody bothers to buy the same, it will not have changed the lives of the women in any way. Actually, having spent the little capital in producing the products and no revenue in return, it will be a factor that doesn’t motivate the women. It is possible to witness some of the changed women going back to the old ways as a result of frustrations like the one mentioned above.
The government and other nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have a role to play in empowering the women. The government can set aside funds that will be channeled to helping the women. The funds can be used as capital to start up business or to grow and increase the already existing women’s businesses. Banks and other financial institutions can lend women to the women support groups at lower interest charges.
NGOs can decide to empower the women and the girl child in various ways. Since most of the victims are from poor backgrounds, the NGOs can sponsor young girls so that quality education can be acquired. The girls in return will be the community’s asset. The NGOs can as well fund the women groups. The success of the women will be the community’s success. Men in the society should not see the women as a threat, but as growth to the entire community which will in return lead to economic growth in the entire country.

Conclusion

Victimization of the aboriginal women should end. It is degrading, not only to a woman as an individual but to the society as a whole (Meloy & Miller, 2011). It is a vice that should be eradicated at all cost. Any person, male or female, found being involved in such kind of malpractice should receive a penalty for the same. A society that respects and supports its women is a successful society.

References

Carbert, L. (2006). Rural women's leadership in Atlantic Canada first-hand perspectives on local public life and participation in electoral politics. Toronto Ont: University of Toronto Press.
Covell, K. (2007). A question of commitment children's rights in Canada. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
King, T. (2013). The inconvenient Indian : a curious account of native people in North America. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Meloy, M., & Miller, S. (2011). The victimization of women: Law, policies, and politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Smart, J. (2009). Disability, society, and the individual (2nd ed.). Austin, Tex.: Pro-ed.
The Canadian Press. (2014) CBCnews http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/report-of-1-000-murdered-or-missing-aboriginal-women-spurs-calls-for-inquiry-1.2628372