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Geneva
human rights committee 'shocked' at NZ's human rights report card
24
May. 2019
A
UN human rights committee is shocked by New Zealand's record on child
poverty, inadequate housing, the incarceration rate, and violence,
abuse and bullying.
New
Zealand received a mixed reception from the UN Committee responsible
for oversight of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (ICESCR) when it met in Geneva last month.
Human
Rights chief commissioner David Rutherford and chief legal advisor
Janet Anderson-Bidois attended the review, and Justice Minister
Andrew Little addressed questions from the committee on the
Government's action on policies and legislation, which aimed to
ensure Kiwis had access to equal economic, social and cultural
rights.
However,
some of New Zealand's human rights statistics shocked the committee,
Rutherford said.
"It
was empowering to observe the incredulity at some of our worst
statistics.
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"While
issues like health disparities, or domestic violence, are well-known
to many of us in New Zealand, they came as a shock to some committee
members."
They
were shocked by statistics on child poverty, inadequate housing, the
incarceration rate, and violence, abuse and bullying.
These
statistics "didn't seem to sit well with our status as a
developed nation," Rutherford said.
Seeing
the language that the committee used to describe New Zealand's record
was "surprising", Little said.
"I
was certainly surprised by their language because over the two days
that I met with them...the conversation was very constructive and
very good and it seemed to me at the end of it for engaging in their
questions and so on it was incredibly positive."
The
committee also noted significant standard of living, education, and
health disparities for groups such as Māori, Pasifika people,
disabled people, and the LGBTI community.
"Māori
and Pasifika New Zealanders are more likely to be affected by
preventable conditions, and to die prematurely," he said.
"They
are also less likely to be able to access care because of
socio-economic barriers."
Meanwhile,
people with intellectual disabilities had an average life expectancy
several decades less than other people of the same age.
The
committee picked out three main areas where it wanted the Government
to report back to the committee within 18 months.
These
were the development of a human rights-based housing strategy,
progress on reducing family violence, and the removal of benefit
sanctions.
The
issues of housing, family violence, and benefit sanctions, along with
New Zealand's rate of child poverty and incarceration have all
recently been in the spotlight in New Zealand.
Earlier
in the year, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern introduced the country's
first child poverty reduction targets in an aim to put a "historic
dent" in child poverty. She put in place three 10-year targets,
and a child poverty reduction bill, which outlined a series of ways
to measure child poverty.
Little
said he wasn't "particularly fussed" about the priority
areas that had been set out because the Government was already on top
of addressing them.
"We
should have a good story to tell about steps we're taking in relation
to them," he said.
According
to the Ministry of Social Development's Household incomes in New
Zealand report 140,000 children - or 13 per cent - were living in
households with income of less than 50 per cent of the median, before
housing costs, in 2016.
Meanwhile,
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis and Little have spoken about
widespread changes to the criminal justice system, in order to drop
the prison population by 30 per cent in the next 15 years. New
Zealand's prison muster has been growing at "one of the most
rapid rates ever recorded", according to Corrections. In 2016
the prison population exceeded 10,000 for the first time, and it had
continued to grow since then.
New
Zealand has long had one of the worst family violence records in the
OECD, with police attending more than 100,000 domestic violence
callouts a year.
And
at the end of last year the Government and Opposition were at odds
over benefit sanctions - the new Government wanted to scrap sanctions
for sole parent beneficiaries who did not name the other parent, and
Ministry of Social Development report from 2016 was inconclusive,
saying: "We do not have sufficient evidence to confirm if the
benefit reduction is achieving the policy's intent."
The
Human Rights Commission also made a submission to the committee,
which called for New Zealand to demonstrate a more tangible
legislative, policy and practice commitment to meeting its
obligations under ICESCR.
The
committee review process aimed to identify what needed to change in
New Zealand in order to "move the dial" on human rights,
Rutherford said.
