Violence Against the Indigenous Women: Methodological and Ethical Recommendations for Research

The importance of more countries contributing to precise and comparable statistics on violence against women (VAW) is undeniable. Methodological adaptation is a very important aspect to increase the probability of women disclosing violence and safeguard their integrity. Research on VAW adapted to ethnic populations is scarce. Colombia has great ethnic diversity and is the country in the region with the second highest percentage of women reporting having suffered physical or sexual violence. However, statistics on VAW are limited, and no guidance or recommendations exist with respect to adapting the VAW research protocol to indigenous communities with unique forms of social organization. The indigenous Nasa community functions as a small society with its communal organization, own social norms, and indigenous customary law. In addition, the indigenous Nasa population has a worldview that is reflected in the way women suffer and face violence and discrimination. This article is based on a pilot survey that adapts and implements the WHO multicountry study's survey methodology on women's health and domestic VAW in three resguardos (communal lands) of the Nasa indigenous community in Colombia. The goal is to contribute to and improve the methodological adaptation of VAW research to cultural diversity, and simultaneously attempting to obtain high-quality data that can be comparable at the national and international levels. Recommendations for adaptation, ethical considerations, challenges, and implications for future studies with indigenous populations are discussed.