Human Rights Council: Adoption of New Zealand’s Fourth Universal Periodic Review

Vice President, distinguished representatives of Member and Observer States of the Human Rights Council, I am honoured to present New Zealand's formal response to the recommendations we received during our fourth Universal Periodic Review.

I would like to begin by thanking those States, observers, and civil society representatives, who participated in our review on 29 April, and also the Secretariat and the troika of Morocco, Bangladesh and Argentina for their assistance. I'd also like to thank the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, our independent national human rights institution, which has provided invaluable contributions throughout the process.

New Zealand has a long history of commitment to human rights and fair treatment for all. We are proud of our record promoting, protecting, and advancing human rights. At the same time, we acknowledge that there are areas that require further work.

The UPR process has been a useful way for us to take stock of what we are doing well, and where challenges remain.

We welcome the positive feedback received from many countries on New Zealand's commitment to promoting human rights. New Zealand's National Mechanism for Human Rights, and the development of its online monitoring tool were highlighted as good practice.

We also acknowledge the range of opportunities for improvement. Member states made 259 recommendations, highlighting areas where more work could be done.

We look forward to engaging with member states in further discussion about the actions that New Zealand is taking to better protect, promote, and advance human rights.

Following the review, the Government invited the public to make submissions on the recommendations. We received 44 submissions from stakeholders and civil society.

The domestic engagement process, both leading up to the review and following, has been both important and valuable for preparing us for the implementation phase of our review. It has further raised awareness among the New Zealand public and the Government about the UPR process, the status of human rights in New Zealand, and the recommendations we have received.

Turning to our positions on the recommendations, New Zealand welcomes all the recommendations made during the review process. We carefully considered each of them. In total, New Zealand has supported 168 of the 259 recommendations, supported in part 12 recommendations, and noted 79.

The recommendations we support are those where Government work is ongoing or is planned. For some recommendations, while we accept the spirit behind them, we cannot commit to the specifics and, therefore, they must be noted.

The recommendations we received spanned a wide range of human rights. Key themes included criminal justice, counterterrorism, human trafficking and forced labour, the right to education, the rights of women, and indigenous rights.

All of these are areas where the Government is actively taking steps to address on-going challenges, and we remain committed to do more. Many of these were priority areas identified in our National Report for this UPR.

New Zealand is launching a new online monitoring tool, the Human Rights Monitor, this month, as part of our National Mechanism for Reporting and Follow-up. The UPR recommendations, and the actions the Government agrees to take in response, will be recorded in this tool.

I will now turn to some of New Zealand's domestic human rights priority areas.

The first priority area that I turn to is family violence and sexual violence. This continues to be of concern in New Zealand and has a wide range of implications for human rights. These issues have detrimental impacts on victims directly, and beyond, to families, communities, and society, which can affect people's wellbeing and sense of safety.

New Zealand is determined to address and reduce family violence and sexual violence including through legislative changes and policy initiatives. Reducing offending, and ensuring there are significant consequences for serious offending, is key to reducing victimisation and prioritising victims in the justice system.

We have accepted all recommendations in relation to sexual and gender-based violence. We are developing a second action plan under Te Aorerekura, the National Strategy for the elimination of family violence and sexual violence. We are also progressing two Bills to strengthen our family and sexual violence legislative framework.

New Zealand acknowledges the challenges that exist within our criminal justice system. We are deeply committed to creating a more effective system with the aim of doing better for current, and future generations of New Zealanders. We have supported eight recommendations related to improving outcomes across the justice sector. These recommendations will be addressed by continuing to progress a range of programmes to reduce the number of victims, improve outcomes for Māori in the criminal justice system, conducting a review of legal aid settings, and continuing to improve conditions in detention facilities and across the prison network.

New Zealand has also supported all 16 recommendations related to child and youth wellbeing, child poverty, and abuse in state care. The Government is committed to reducing child poverty, and to the framework under the Child Poverty Reduction Act. The Government will continue to report regularly on poverty reduction progress to ensure transparency and accountability.

The Government's focus is on addressing existing need and rebuilding the economy, in order to mitigate the impact of the cost-of-living crisis. This will help ease the pressures on households, reduce food insecurity, and reduce child poverty.

Supporting parents into paid work is an important route out of poverty for many families. New Zealand is also focused on reducing the number of children growing up in welfare-dependent households.

New Zealand has undertaken substantial work to improve education, health and protection outcomes for Māori and Pacific children, who experience higher rates of inequities. The Ministry for Children has a range of services to support its work with Māori.

In 2018 New Zealand established a Royal Commission of Inquiry to inquire into and report on abuse in state care and in the care of faith-based institutions in New Zealand. The Royal Commission into Abuse in Care delivered its final report on 26 June 2024. The Government has acknowledged the report findings and the failings of the state and faith-based institutions perpetuated across New Zealand over decades. It is important that, as a country, we bring to the surface and understand the hard truths of what happened so we can try and move forward together. The Prime Minister will deliver a national apology on 12 November in Parliament and agencies will continue to progress work on outstanding recommendations from the Inquiry to right the wrongs of the past and improve current frameworks.

Many New Zealanders continue to face challenges with the ongoing rises in cost of living, including housing. The economic impacts of COVID-19, recent natural disasters and high inflation have all contributed to this increase. Our continuing and significant housing shortage also means that housing remains unaffordable for many New Zealanders.

We support all recommendations that relate to improving living standards, social security, and housing. We have provided increased funding for families to help with the costs of raising children and increased support through tax credits for families (Working for Families). We have provided income tax relief and have introduced a new tax credit for childcare costs.

The best route out of hardship is through employment. While retaining a comprehensive safety net of support for those in need, the Government also wants to ensure that all New Zealanders who are able to work have access to support to help them find, and stay in, employment.

The Government is committed to solving the housing crisis. Housing provides a foundation for family and social stability and contributes to health and educational outcomes, access to services and a productive workforce. The Government has introduced a programme of work to increase the supply of land for housing, improve the rental market, reform the planning and building system, and grow social housing. The Government has set a target of reducing households in emergency housing by 75% by 2030. The Government is also adding 1,500 social housing places to the existing pipeline provided by Community Housing Providers.

New Zealand supports all recommendations that relate to access to education, inclusive education, and comprehensive sexuality education.

In April 2024, the Government announced six education priorities to deliver an education system that sets children and young people up for success by lifting achievement. These priorities are: a clearer curriculum, a better approach to literacy and numeracy, smarter assessment and reporting, improved teacher training, stronger learning support, and greater use of data and evidence to drive consistent improvement in achievement.

Work is currently underway to strengthen the national curriculum for schooling through updates to the New Zealand Curriculum and Te Matauranga o Aotearoa, the curriculum for Māori language schools. This will help to ensure our curriculum delivers for all students and supports each child and young person to reach their full potential. Sexuality education is part of Health and Physical Education learning and remains a required component of the New Zealand Curriculum.

We will also continue to work with disabled communities to identify strategic outcomes and action areas relating to inclusive education, so these are part of the next New Zealand Disability Strategy.

I will now address the issue of the rights of Indigenous Peoples. The 1840 Te Tiriti o Waitangi - the Treaty of Waitangi is a founding constitutional document of New Zealand. Under the Treaty, the Government has a duty to protect the interests of Māori in their lands and taonga - their treasured possessions, including language and culture.

New Zealand has supported recommendations relating to reducing disparities for Māori and other ethnic minorities. The focus that the Government is taking is action to ensure outcomes are achieved for all New Zealanders, including Māori. Māori are over-represented in poor health outcomes, the criminal justice sector, and poor educational achievements. Working with Māori on how we can best achieve equitable outcomes will be pivotal to achieve the government targets for all New Zealanders.

New Zealand also supports recommendations relating to ensuring Māori are effectively involved in decision making on issues that affect them. Our current constitutional arrangements facilitate Māori engagement in decision making.

I will now discuss the recommendations that we have noted, rather than supported.

While we accept the intent of many of the recommendations, 79 of them could not be formally supported. These included recommendations relating to the ratification or accession to international instruments, the minimum criminal age of responsibility, a business and human rights action plan, the passage of pay transparency legislation and the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

New Zealand does not reject the intention of any recommendation. However, we cannot accept certain recommendations because they depend on future decision-making according to our constitutional processes.

The largest number of noted recommendations sit within the overarching theme of international instruments. These recommendations suggest signing or ratifying certain international treaties that New Zealand is not yet party to and withdrawing our existing reservations. New Zealand is unable to bypass its domestic process of considering the implications of international conventions, including by our Parliament. We are therefore unable to accept recommendations to ratify, sign, or withdraw reservations.

New Zealand will, however, consider acceding to the Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance and the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Furthermore, New Zealand will consider removing existing reservations.

Mr President, I look forward to hearing from States and civil society before providing my closing remarks.

Closing remarks

Thank you, Vice President

I thank the Member States, the Human Rights Commission, and civil society who have made statements today, demonstrating their continued interest and engagement in the human rights situation in New Zealand.

Many important issues have been raised for us to focus on in our follow-up. New Zealand is determined to face our challenges, and recognises we have much more work to do.

The Government will continue to consider the views of our international colleagues during our ongoing human rights work in New Zealand.

As a part of our commitment to ongoing action and engagement during the implementation period, New Zealand intends to submit a mid-term report in 2026.

The success of the UPR depends on all States committing to it as an on-going process. Therefore, while this report today wraps up the formal Council proceedings of our fourth review cycle, for us much work lies ahead. We are now shifting into the domestic implementation stage, which will bring a tangible difference for New Zealanders. And our new online-monitoring tool will be important for tracking our progress transparently, and for holding us to account.

Finally, I would like to reaffirm the New Zealand Government's continuing commitment to the fundamental importance of universal human rights and to the international system, including the important work of the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms, which seeks to uphold these rights the world over. I thank you all for your kind attention and contribution to a process that we are sure will help us to improve the promotion, protection, and advancement of human rights in New Zealand.

Thank you, Mr President.

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