A look at sexual violence against Indigenous women

Indigenous women

Akubadaura community of Lawyers presents the Short Documentary: “My body does not lie”, a video that, in 18 minutes, proposes a look at the factors that lead to the configuration of sexual violence against Indigenous women by armed groups and responsibility of the Government when the sex offenders are government officials.

My Body Does Not Lie (video in spanish)

Diana Quigua, a researcher at Dejusticia, argues that “structural racism inherited from colonization is one of those structural factors that determine the exercise of violence against Indigenous women and especially the exercise of sexual violence”. The context of the armed conflict only accentuates the seriousness of these attacks.

Economic interests, illicit businesses, the presence of armed groups in ancestral territories open the door for a whole series of human rights violations, such as the forced recruitment of children, the forced displacement of communities, selective murders and sexual violence against women.

At the same time, the video discusses the strengthening of the Special Indigenous Jurisdiction as a mechanism that could contribute to the investigation and documentation of cases, that could lead to sanction such conducts of those responsible for sex crimes, but that could also serve to heal victims, their communities and territories.

Sex crimes against indigenous women are a very worrying situation, incidents, facts and testimonies show that this heinous crime has an enormous impact on the lives of indigenous women, their communities and territories, where the Government has to respond in terms of adequate documentation of cases and punishment of those responsible. There is a debt to implement an appropriate ethnic response to territorial contexts, where there has to be an inclusive structural transformation of an entire society.

“My body does not lie” is a production of the Akubadaura Community of Lawyers with the support of the Forum for Women and Development – FOKUS- and is part of the “Report on gender violence against indigenous women, girls and teenagers in Colombia”.

Women are weavers of life, they maintain the balance with Mother Earth to continue walking and continue living.