B.C. Highway of Tears investigated by global rights group

An international human rights watchdog is now investigating the high number of unsolved cases of missing andslain women in B.C.

Human Rights Watch researchers typically probe abuse, torture and extra-judicial killings in places like Syria and Afghanistan. Now the organization has set its sights on Northern B.C.

Researcher Meghan Rhoad says the group isvery concerned by the sheer volume of atrocities against aboriginal women in B.C.which has the highest rate of unsolvedhomicides of indigenous women and girls in the country.

"The alarming data on violence against indigenous women and girls has been coming out. The Native Women's Association of Canada has documented 582 cases of missing and murdered women across Canada. Then in B.C. in particular they have documented 160 cases."

Rhoad has spent several months speaking with women across Northern B.C., including several weeks travellingthe so-called Highway of Tears.

"I was struck by just how pervasive the insecurity is in the north and just how many women and girls' lives have been touched by violence, you know in one form or another, and how many families have been affected," she said.

On Thursday, Wally Oppaldelivered his Missing Women's Commission report to the B.C. government. It will be made public in mid-December.

Rhoadsaid Human Rights Watch plans to release its report into B.C.'s missing andkilled women in 2013.