Domaines prioritaires

L’Association nationale Femmes et Droit travaille activement à la modification des lois qui ont une incidence négative sur la vie des femmes. Elle a pour mission de faire progresser les droits des femmes et l’égalité réelle dans quatre domaines prioritaires : l’élimination de la violence faites aux femmes, la lutte pour la justice reproductive, la défense des droits des femmes face à la crise climatique et l’amélioration de la sécurité économique et de la prospérité des femmes.

Participants at feminist law reform workshop 2019

Advance feminist law reform in Canada

National Association of Women and the Law

Since our founding at a conference held at the University of Windsor law school in 1974, the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) has worked on its own and in collaboration with others to advance feminist law reform in Canada. We’re proud to have had a major role in achieving significant milestones for Canadian women’s equality, and for our feminist legal analysis and advocacy to have impacted countless laws and policies across the country — most notably in relation to the Canadian Human Rights Act and Sections 15 and 28 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Today, we continue to write briefs and discussions papers and appear before Parliamentary and Senate committees, and meet with decision makers to influence the law making process on current and emerging feminist law reform priorities. Working with feminist lawyers, students, service providers, academics, activists and allies, we are (re)building a feminist law reform network and increasing the capacities of women to engage in the law making process.

Our History

Historically NAWL’s operations and work have been supported by: public funding primarily from the federal government, membership fees, and funds received from foundations, individuals, and other sources from time to time. At the request of the Trust, NAWL also delivers activities funded by charitable donations made to the Trust. When NAWL was defunded in 2006 by the (then) federal government, all staff were laid off and the office was closed. More than a decade later, through the hard work of NAWL’s dedicated National Steering Committee, NAWL received a multi-year grant and operations fully resumed in 2017.

Our history

Our Staff

Tiffany Butler

Executive Director

Deirdre O’Beirne-Røsæg

Head of Communications

Suzanne Zaccour

Head of Feminist Law Reform

Merry Sun

Finance Administrator

Rose Ghaedi

David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights Summer Fellowship

Staff Bios

Tiffany Butler (she/her) is the Executive Director of NAWL. In this role, Tiffany leads and manages all aspects of NAWL’s operations. Prior to joining NAWL, Tiffany led the Canadian Bar Association’s (CBA) Young Lawyers International Program (YLIP) supporting young lawyers from across Canada to gain international professional experience in climate justice, gender equality, human rights and law reform work. Prior to this, Tiffany managed a broad range of access to justice programs, including the University of Calgary’s Pro Bono Students Canada chapter and Calgary Legal Guidance’s Domestic Violence Legal Intervention Program providing survivor-centred legal services to women fleeing intimate partner and family violence. She began her legal career practicing law in specialized community and legal aid clinics providing trauma-informed legal representation to marginalized and vulnerable populations, primarily in the areas of violence against women and youth criminal defence.

Prior to her law career, Tiffany co-founded a snowboarding and skateboarding events production company dedicated to the inclusion and progression of women and girls in those sports. Tiffany has also contributed to the community through her volunteer work with Calgary’s gender-inclusive 100% Skate Club, as a volunteer board member with the Alberta River Surfing Association and currently as a volunteer board member with Les Amis de la Forêt-la-Blanche Ecological Reserve.

Tiffany obtained her law degree from the University of Calgary (2011) and a degree in Public Affairs and Policy Management specializing in Human Rights from Carleton University (2009). She was called to the Alberta Bar in 2012 and the Ontario Bar in 2018. Fluent in English and French, Tiffany has lived and studied across Canada, in Europe, and in Southeast Asia. Tiffany is an avid board sports enthusiast and recently picked up gardening which she enjoys doing with the help of her dog, Katka.

Deirdre O’Beirne-Røsæg is a marketing communications specialist with over 8 years of experience and now joins the NAWL team as Head of Communications.

She started her career with a top global premium drinks company, dedicating five years to building brands and advancing strategic communication plans, while working in Montréal, Brussels, Dublin and Copenhagen. After successfully developing significant marketing expertise, she was keen to combine this knowledge with her activism on climate and social justice.

And so, for the past three years she has worked for the Green Party of Ireland and Canada in a variety of positions, including as a Communications Strategist and Legislative Assistant on Parliament Hill. Her most recent position was as Deputy Director of Communications for the Green Party of Canada.

Deirdre is really looking forward to continuing her career with NAWL, particularly during this exciting time as the organization prepares for its 50th anniversary!

Suzanne is a feminist author, researcher and public speaker. After studying law at McGill University, the University of Toronto and the University of Cambridge, she is currently wrapping up her research on sexual offences law as a doctoral candidate at Oxford University. Her research interests include sexual and domestic violence, family law, animal rights, and gender and language. She is the author of La fabrique du viol (Leméac 2019), a book in French about sexual violence and rape culture, and has authored and co-authored other books and articles related to women’s rights. She has created and delivered trainings on inclusive language and sexual assault to schools, law firms, government branches and other organizations. Suzanne was a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada (2019-2020) and was called to the Ontario bar in 2021.

Merry was a chemical engineer until 2004, when she started studying and working in the accounting field. She received her accounting designation through CGA Ontario in 2012. Ever since, her focus is on providing accounting and finance solutions to small not-for-profit organizations. She enjoys utilizing her experiences acquired in full cycle accounting and finance management, as well as the expertise in payroll and accounting software, to support the work of the NPO sector. In her spare time, she enjoys hiking and skiing, and is an excellent badminton player.

Rose is a first-year student studying law at the University of Toronto. She is passionate about finding ways to bring feminist perspectives to the study and practice of law, particularly in the areas of climate and refugee law. With a background in academic research and content creation, Rose hopes to support NAWL’s efforts to give youth the tools necessary to engage in feminist law reform. In her free time, she enjoys hiking and climbing, along with watching all flavors of horror movies.

Our National Steering Committee

We are governed by a National Steering Committee that functions as our Board of Directors.

Kerri A. Froc is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law, University of New Brunswick. She is also writing a book tentatively titled, “The Gendered Constitution.” It concerns gender equality in Canadian constitutional law.

Dr. Froc received her Ph.D. from Queen’s University (2016), her Master of Laws from the University of Ottawa (2009); her Bachelor of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University (1996); and her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Regina (1993). Her research interests include sex equality, theories of constitutional interpretation, access to justice, reproductive rights, rights of political representation, and complex rights violations experienced by working women, poor women and racialized and Indigenous women.

Before completing her Ph.D., Dr. Froc spent 18 years as a lawyer, including 10 years working as a staff lawyer for the Canadian Bar Association (CBA). While at the CBA, she worked on issues concerning diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and successfully lobbied for governmental benefits to be paid for the self-employed during parental leave. She is a Board member of the New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity, as well as a member of the Saskatchewan (1997) and New Brunswick (2020) bars.

Lise Gotell is the Landrex Distinguished Professor in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Alberta where she has taught for the past 25 years. She completed her PhD in Political Science at York University in 1993, after which she held a Social Sciences and Humanities Postdoctoral Award at the Institute for Feminist Legal Studies. Lise is an internationally recognized expert on sexual consent law. She is currently engaged in research projects examining the rise of the rough sex defence and developing strategies to address the sexual assault justice gap for Alberta survivors. Lise has also held a number of academic leadership positions, including Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies, and Vice-Dean and Acting Dean of Arts.

Strongly committed to feminist activism and to the project of feminist law reform, the focus of her academic research and advocacy has been to help shape policy and awareness around violence against women. Her work has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada, as well as in law reform initiatives here and in other countries. Lise served on the Board of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund and acted as National Chair between 2016-18, during which time she also contributed to numerous cases committees. Currently, she serves on the Advisory Committee of Courage to Act, helping to develop national strategies to combat campus sexual violence. In 2021, the University of Alberta recognized her public engagement through a Community Scholar Award.

Martha is a Professor of constitutional law at the University of Ottawa where she has taught in the French Common Law program since 1988. She publishes and lectures extensively on social and economic rights, equality and the Canadian Charter. She is regularly involved in lobbying, continuing judicial and legal education, and litigation in these areas, including as counsel for the Charter Committee on Poverty Issues, LEAF, and other interveners in Charter test cases at the trial, appellate and Supreme Court levels.

She was a long-time editor of the Canadian Journal of Women and the Law/Revue femmes et droit, a past member of LEAF’s National Legal Committee and Board of Directors, a former member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Health Coalition, a member of the board of the Social Rights Advocacy Centre and a member of the Association des juristes d’expression française de l’Ontario. From 1999-2004, she sat on the Equality Rights Panel of the Court Challenges Program of Canada; from 2007-2011, she held the University of Ottawa’s Shirley E. Greenberg Chair for Women and the Legal Profession; and, from 2004-2015, she was the academic lead for two $1,000,000 SSHRC-funded Community-University Research Alliance projects aimed at improving socio-economic rights accountability. In 1996, she received CRIAW’s Marion Porter Prize; in 2007, she was awarded the Law Society of Ontario Medal; in 2015, she was the recipient of the Canadian Bar Association’s Touchstone Award in recognition of her efforts to advance equality, and; in 2017, she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Most recently Martha was granted the David Walter Mundell Medal for Legal Writing, by the Attorney General of Ontario (2018), and the Canadian Health Coalition’s Guardian of Public Health Care Award (Academic) (2019).

Martha has been on the NAWL National Steering Committee since 2007 and has acted as its’ co-chair 2012-2020. Martha was the Chair of the 2020-2021 National Steering Committee.

Danica is a recent University of New Brunswick law graduate currently completing her articling at a business law firm in Calgary, AB. As a student leader, Danica took an active role in promoting feminist legal theory at UNB. Danica was the co-president of the UNB Law Feminist Legal Association and the UNB Mental Health and the Law Society and volunteered with Sexual Violence New Brunswick as crisis intervention volunteer. Additionally, Danica has worked closely with the New Brunswick Aboriginal People’s Association as a student researcher for the Looking Out for Each Other project – a community driven initiative dedicated to assisting families of missing Indigenous women and girls. Now, as a junior lawyer, Danica is dedicated to continuing her feminist advocacy and promoting the women’s movement from within the profession. Danica joined the NAWL National Steering Committee in 2021.

Dr. Sabaa Khan is a lawyer and Director-General for Québec & Atlantic Canada at the David Suzuki Foundation. She also leads the Foundation’s climate law portfolio. A member of the World Commission on Environmental Law (IUCN) and the Barreau du Québec, Sabaa has held a number of advisory appointments in international trade and environmental governance, including on the NAFTA Advisory Council on Environment (Government of Canada), the Joint Public Advisory Committee of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (Chair, 2019) and the UNEP Expert Group on Legal and Institutional Infrastructures for the Sound Management of Chemicals (LIRA Guidance). She is a former Senior Researcher of the Center for Climate Change, Energy & Environmental Law (Joensuu, Finland) where she taught international trade law in the Master’s Degree Programme in Environmental Policy and Law, and led an Academy of Finland-funded research project on global environmental law and chemical pollution in the Arctic. She was also a member of international multidisciplinary research consortiums investigating emergent transboundary environmental governance problems, including short-lived climate pollutants in the Arctic, as well as pharmaceutical and plastic pollution. Her legal research has been widely published, including by the Nordic Council of Ministers, the United Nations University – Institute for Sustainability and Peace, the Leiden Journal of International Law, Cambridge University Press and the Conference of the Four Societies of international law. Sabaa holds a doctoral degree from the Faculty of Law at McGill University where she was an O’Brien Fellow of the Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism and a Member of the Labour Law and Development Research Laboratory, as well as an LL.M. degree from the Université de Montréal and an LL.L. degree from the Université d’Ottawa. Sabaa is also a pianist, mother, and member of the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada.

Alisa is fluent in a few languages, and provides legal services in English, French, and Spanish. She is a published bi-jural lawyer with extensive experience in complex legal and policy issues relating to Indigenous-Crown relations and reconciliation in national and international forums. After completing a clerkship with the Specific Claims Tribunal, Alisa was called to the Ontario Bar in 2011 and is also a member of the Saskatchewan Bar.

Alisa was senior legal counsel to the Specific Claims Tribunal in Ottawa since it first began. She worked on over 70 specific claims and advised the Tribunal’s Members—sitting Superior Court Judges—on the design and use of regulatory and other processes undertaken to resolve the claims. In this capacity, she acquired a unique expertise in the layered legal intersection between fiduciary law, constitutional law and Aboriginal law. Alisa was co-counsel on Canada v. Kitselas, 2014 at the Federal Court of Appeal where the Tribunal’s standard of review on judicial review was established and its powers confirmed. Alisa contributed to materials developed for judicial education, the Tribunal’s mandated five-year review of its enabling legislation and the Tribunal’s trial decision in Williams Lake Indian Band v. Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, 2014, which was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in Williams Lake Indian Band v. Canada, 2018, wherein the Tribunal’s expertise and specialized nature were confirmed.

Alisa has been involved in and acted for many First Nations in a variety of complex, specific claims including pre- and post-confederate illegal reserve land takings, various breaches of fiduciary obligations, mismanagement of Indian monies and assets, Crown failures to uphold Treaty promises and to create reserves.

Alisa is lead counsel on a proposed class action pertaining to the forced sterilization of Indigenous women in Saskatchewan. For her advocacy in this matter, she was recognized in “Chatelaine’s Women of the Year 2018”.

Alisa has appeared before levels of courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, administrative Tribunals and international committees and commissions, including the United Nations Committee Against Torture and the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights. In 2019, Alisa was nominated for the “International Bar Association Award for Outstanding Contribution by a Legal Practitioner to Human Rights” by her peers at the International Justice Resource Center, in San Francisco, California.

Alisa is currently pursuing a masters in law at the University of Ottawa. Alisa is a devoted citizen of the Mi’kmaq Nation (Elsipogtog First Nation) and married to a citizen of the Nehiyewak Nation (Patuanak First Nation and Moosomin First Nation). They share two little girls.

Cheryl is the Executive Director of the David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. She was called to the Ontario Bar in 1987 and completed her M.S.W. at University of Toronto in 1991. She practised at the legal clinic Justice for Children and Youth from 1991 to 2008 where she appeared at all levels of court and various administrative tribunals on behalf of young people. There she also led the clinic’s Charter litigation including the challenge to the corporal punishment defence in the Criminal Code [Canadian Foundation for Children, Youth and the Law v. Canada (2004)], the striking down of the reverse onus sections of the Youth Criminal Justice Act for adult sentencing [R. v. D.B. (2008)], and an intervention involving the right of a capable adolescent to consent to her own medical treatment [A.C. v. Manitoba Child and Family Services (2009)].

As Executive Director of the Asper Centre, she has represented the Centre at the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Conway, R v. Barton, R. v. Kokopenace and the jury vetting appeals [R v Emms, R v Davey, R v Yumnu (2012)], as well as in the Polygamy Reference case at the B.C. Supreme Court and Tanudjaja v Canada (Attorney General) at the Ontario Court of Appeal. She is the past Chair of the Ontario Bar Association, Constitutional, Civil Liberties and Human Rights Section and has served on the CBA National Constitutional and Human Rights Law and Child and Youth Law Sections executive. From 2018 to 2020 she served on the Child and Family Services Review Board and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and continues to serve on the Steering Committee of the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL). In 2019, Cheryl was awarded the Law Society Medal by the Law Society of Ontario for her contributions to the legal profession.

She teaches a Constitutional Advocacy clinic and Child and Youth Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto.

Alison Southern is an associate at Augustine Bater Binks LLP in Ottawa, and practices exclusively in family law throughout the East Region. Before joining ABB, she practiced family law and civil litigation in both Brockville and Ottawa, and has appeared in both the Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Court of Justice. Alison has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in political science from Carleton University, and was a member of the inaugural class at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law in Thunder Bay, graduating with her JD in 2016 and was called to the bar in September of the same year.

Within the legal profession, Alison is involved in the Ontario Bar Association in multiple roles, including on the OBA council and positions on the family law, women lawyers’ forum, and solo and small firm practice executives. Previously, she was the Chair of the Young Lawyers Division – East. Outside of the practice of law, Alison is a Captain in the Canadian Armed Forces reserves, specifically working the Canadian Cadet program – a no-cost program that aims to develop such attributes as good citizenship and leadership among youth ages 12-18.

Zahra is a family lawyer and a Certified Specialist in Family Mediation. She is one of the founding partners of the law firm Simpson Taseer LLP. She is an active member of the Law Society of Ontario, with background in human rights and women’s rights work both in Canada and internationally. She is a member of the executive of the Family Law Section of the Ontario Bar Association and the Advocate Society’s 10+ Standing Committee. Her interests lie in the area of violence against women (VAW) and access to justice. She earned her common law degree from University of Ottawa, where she was actively involved in the Women’s Division at the Community Legal Clinic. Zahra also holds a LL.M. from University of Toronto. Prior to being called to the bar, Zahra worked for several years with women’s rights organizations including Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development, advocating for women’s rights at the regional level and at the United Nations. At law school, Zahra received the Bertha Wilson scholarship for human rights.

Naomi is a bilingual executive currently working as the Academic Administrator of the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section of the University of Ottawa. This role ensures the integrated direction, planning and coordination of all academic and administrative activities of the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section. She has spent the past eighteen years at the University of Ottawa, taking on roles with increasing responsibilities in the academic, finance, administrative, operation and research sector. She has more than ten years of management experience and a high sense of understanding in the areas of strategic and financial operation, research management and teaching within the post-secondary education sector. In 2018, she was the recipient of the Outstanding Staff Service Award of the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section.

She currently holds a Master’s in Business administration (MBA) from the Telfer School of Management of the University of Ottawa and has been a member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario (CPA) since 2011. In addition, she has taught on a part-time basis at La cite collégiale a variety of courses (accounting, management accounting, human resources, remuneration). In addition to her work, she has had the opportunity to volunteer for the Lowertown Community Resource Centre tax clinic.

Naomi Telfort is the Treasurer of the 2020-2021 National Steering Committee

Julia is a lawyer (Quebec Bar) working as a Legal Counsel in Sexual and Reproductive Rights for Lawyers without Borders Canada (ASFC) in Quebec City. Before joining ASFC, she worked as an independent human rights consultant for various non-governmental organizations, including the International Federation for Human Rights and the Global Survivors Fund (GSF). Her work for GSF mainly focused on gaps and opportunities of reparations identified by survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Mali, Syria, and Sudan. Julia also worked as a Program Officer for Parliamentarians for Global Action where she closely worked with parliamentarians from all around the world on the domestication of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in their national jurisdiction, with a focus on sexual and gender-based crimes. She won the Excellence Scholarship for her academic performances and completed the Advanced Master in Public International Law at Leiden University in the Netherlands (cum laude). Julia wrote her thesis on the definition of the crime of forced pregnancy as a crime against humanity. In her thesis, soon to be published in the Hastings Journal on Gender and the Law, she critically analyses the definition of this crime using an intersectional feminist perspective. She completed her Law degree at Laval University (Dean’s Honour List) and was called to the Bar in October 2018. As a feminist lawyer, Julia seeks to continue her journey advocating for the respect of sexual and reproductive rights with a focus on menstrual health and hygiene, the prevention of maternal morbidity, and abortion rights. Julia joined the NAWL National Steering Committee in 2022.

Amanda came to NAWL as a summer student on secondment and joined the National Steering Committee in October 2021. Amanda is currently completing her final year of law school at Osgoode Hall Law School and will be articling at a union side labour and employment law firm in Ottawa, ON.

During her time at Osgoode, Amanda completed the Feminist Advocacy Clinical Program. Offered in partnership with the Barbara Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, the program was comprised of weekly clinic shifts and seminars to help students develop feminist advocacy skills by providing legal assistance to women experiencing intimate partner violence.

Amanda was the 2021 recipient of the Ursel Phillips Fellows Hopkinson LLP Prize for her essay on intimate partner violence within LBGT relationships and was the 2020 recipient of the Mabel Penery French Prize awarded to the student with the highest standing in the course Law, Gender and Equality at Osgoode Hall Law School. Amanda holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Gender and Women’s Studies from Trent University, a Bachelor of Science in Life Sciences from Queen’s University and a diploma in x-ray technology from the Eastern Ontario School of X-Ray Technology. Amanda is bilingual in French.

Left photo of our 2019/2020 National Steering Committee — back row from left to right: Lorena Sekwan Fontaine, Susana May Yon Lee, Lisa Cirillo and Zahra Taseer; front row left to right: Martha Jackman, Naomi Telford, Anne Levesque and Cheryl Milne. Absent: Sasha Hart.

Right photo of our 1991/1993 National Steering Committee — from left to right: Kerry Burke, Diane Zwicker, Ann Martin, Suki Beavers, Maeve Baird, Sue Brown, Susan Vella, Roz Currie, Sandra Sellens, Joan Brockman. Absent: Barb Janzen. Photo courtesy of the University of Ottawa Archives and Special Collections Fonds 10-036.

From 1974 to present

Our National Steering Committees over the years

Learn more

Our Feminist Law Reform Working Groups

NAWL is committed to working in collaboration with other feminist and equality seeking groups and individuals in Canada working towards advancing women’s equality rights.

To ensure that NAWL remains connected to our three key priority areas, we established three Feminist Law Reform (FLR) Working Groups:

FLR & Reproductive Rights: Chair: Julia Tetrault-Provencher, Kerri Froc, Alison Southern,

FLR & Climate Crisis: Chair: Sabaa Khan, Melanie Snow, Jewelles Smith, Lauren Marshall

FLR & Violence Against Women: Chair: Lise Gotell, Amanda Therrien

Nos domaines prioritaires

L’élimination de la violence faites aux femmes

Partout au Canada, les féminicides et la violence faite aux femmes et aux filles continuent de sévir sans relâche, ce qui exige une intervention urgente et continue. La violence faite aux femmes est façonnée par le racisme, l’homophobie, la transphobie, le colonialisme et le capacitisme. Par conséquent, il est indispensable d’adopter une approche systémique et intersectionnelle pour y mettre fin.

Les interventions législatives visant à prévenir et à combattre la violence faite aux femmes doivent également être conçues de manière à aborder la question de la pauvreté et de la sécurité économique des femmes, qui structure et façonne leur expérience de la violence, en particulier celle des femmes racisées, des femmes handicapées, des personnes 2SLGBTQIA+ et des femmes qui ont un statut d’immigration précaire.

L’élimination de la violence faite aux femmes exige également que l’on s’attaque aux conséquences historiques et actuelles du colonialisme. Les voix et les besoins des femmes et des communautés autochtones doivent être au centre de ce travail et l’ANFD appelle les gouvernements, les institutions et les individu×es à travailler collectivement pour mettre en œuvre les appels à la justice énoncés par l’Enquête nationale sur les femmes et les filles autochtones disparues et assassinées.

La lutte pour la justice reproductive

Depuis sa création, l’ANFD milite en faveur la justice reproductive pour les femmes. Toutefois, les progrès réalisés dans ce domaine font l’objet d’attaques de plus en plus fréquentes. C’est pourquoi la justice reproductive demeure un point central du travail de l’ANFD.

La justice reproductive englobe l’égalité d’accès à des avortements sécuritaires pour les femmes et les personnes susceptibles de tomber enceintes, mais elle va bien plus loin. Une approche de la défense des droits fondée sur la justice reproductive implique de veiller à ce que l’autonomie, la sécurité et l’autodétermination des femmes soient privilégiées par le biais de tout un éventail de mesures de soutien, allant des services d’avortement à la contraception gratuite, en passant par une éducation sexuelle solide et l’accès à des services de santé inclusifs.

Les femmes ne peuvent atteindre l’égalité réelle sans justice reproductive. C’est pourquoi l’ANFD continuera à veiller à ce que la justice reproductive reste au premier plan de son programme de réforme du droit.

La défense des droits des femmes face à la crise climatique

La crise climatique est une crise systémique marquée par l’imbrication de défis économiques, sociaux, politiques et géographiques qui ont tous des répercussions disproportionnées sur les femmes, en particulier les femmes autochtones et racisées. La crise climatique ne fait pas qu’exacerber les problèmes politiques, sociaux et économiques auxquels les femmes sont déjà confrontées, elle fait également peser des menaces supplémentaires sur leur santé et leur bien-être.

Une action climatique efficace exige une approche intersectionnelle et féministe. L’ANFD continuera à demander à tous les niveaux de gouvernement de s’attaquer de toute urgence à cette menace pour la sécurité des femmes. Alors que nous nous dirigeons vers des solutions climatiques, l’ANFD continuera d’appliquer une perspective intersectionnelle en reconnaissant que ces solutions doivent tenir compte des besoins et des expériences vécues par les femmes qui sont les plus touchées.

L’amélioration de la sécurité économique et de la prospérité des femmes

Le travail des femmes demeure sous-payé, sous-évalué et précaire. La pauvreté est donc fortement genrée, les femmes connaissant des taux de pauvreté plus élevés que les hommes. Les niveaux de pauvreté diffèrent également d’une femme à l’autre, les femmes racisées et handicapées subissant certaines des formes les plus extrêmes de la pauvreté. La précarité économique à laquelle sont confrontées les femmes les rend vulnérables à la violence et à l’exploitation et les empêche de s’épanouir. Les violences économiques s’accompagnent souvent d’un contrôle coercitif, menaçant ainsi la sécurité économique des femmes et leur capacité à échapper à une relation violente.

L’ANFD s’efforce de faire en sorte que toutes les femmes du Canada puissent vivre dans la dignité et la sécurité en adoptant une approche holistique de l’amélioration de la sécurité économique des femmes. Faire progresser la sécurité économique et la prospérité des femmes implique notamment de faire progresser la législation en matière d’équité salariale et de transparence salariale, de militer en faveur de logements sûrs, abordables et accessibles, et de mettre en place de vastes dispositifs de protection sociale qui permettent aux femmes et à leurs familles de sortir de la pauvreté.