Yukon and Alaska sign agreement to address MMIWG2S+ crisis
The agreement was first initiated in April 2024
The Yukon government has signed an agreement with Alaska to address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit+ people (MMIWG2S+).
Representatives from the Yukon government and the State of Alaska signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) — which was first initiated in April 2024 — at a ceremony in Whitehorse on Tuesday.
The agreement outlines joint expectations to improve safety and respond to gender-based violence in northern communities.
Yukon Minister responsible for the Women and Gender Equity Directorate, Jeanie McLean, attended the ceremony. She says the signing is a milestone that the Yukon Advisory Committee on MMIWG2S+ had been working toward.
“We wanted to build stronger connections with jurisdictions that surround us and where we can work collaboratively, share information, share data, and really foster stronger relationships,” McLean said.
The territory said in a press release on Tuesday that although the agreement does not replace community-led work to address the crisis, it will help governments support that work through cross-border collaboration.
“What it does for me, personally and for others, is builds that stronger relationship where you have a counterpart to pick up the phone and talk to,” McLean said.
McLean hopes the agreement will encourage collaboration at the local level as well, including between Indigenous nations and community-led organizations on both sides of the border.
“I mean, when a person goes missing, and if there’s some sort of connection that may be between the state of Alaska or Yukon or Canada for that matter, then we would want to see that collaboration as quickly as we possibly can,” McLean said.
The MOU states that there will be an annual gathering between the Yukon and Alaska to discuss the MMIWG2S+ crisis, said McLean.
McLean said she is hosting the ministers responsible for the status of women in N.W.T. and Nunavut this week to discuss how the three territories can collaborate and respond to gender-based violence in their communities.
With files from Elyn Jones and The Canadian Press
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Women in Northern Canada travel farthest to access domestic violence shelters, CBC News
Finland: Swedish-speaking Finnish women launch their own #metoo campaign, Yle News
Sweden: Report sheds light on Swedish minority’s historic mistreatment, Radio Sweden
United States: Alaska reckons with missing data on murdered Indigenous women, Alaska Public Media
