SPECPOL

TOPIC A: Missing Indigenous Women

In the past few months, increasing attention has been projected onto the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Certainly, crimes against Indigenous Peoples have been a significant issue for centuries. But in the United States and Canada in particular, there has been a lack of appropriate infrastructure created for Indigenous groups to track down and locate individuals who have been targeted. How can awareness be generated and infrastructure developed to assist with this crisis?

TOPIC B: Protecting Indigenous Communities - Climate Crisis

Although the entire globe will experience the imminent effects of climate change, Indigenous communities are likely to be the most impacted. In particular, as Amnesty International describes, the way in which Indigenous Peoples have an “intimate relationship with the natural environment means that climate change poses a unique danger to their way of life.” Moreover, fossil fuel exploitation coupled with the political marginalization of Indigenous Peoples makes the impacts of climate change particularly severe for them. How can states better protect Indigenous Peoples in light of this reality?