The exact number of women who have disappeared or been murdered along Highway 16 is disputed. The RCMP acknowledges 18 murders and disappearances in its list of Highway of Tears cases, dating from 1969 to 2006 (the RCMP also include women who have disappeared from BC Highways 97 and 5). Ten of these 18 victims are Indigenous women and girls. However, Indigenous groups argue that this number is misleading because it reflects only the disappearances and murders that have happened in the specific geographic areas around these highways and that the real number in Northern British Columbia exceeds 40. According to Human Rights Watch — an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights — British Columbia has the highest rate of unsolved murders of Indigenous women and girls in Canada.