New Zealand - Universal Periodic Review

UPR 32, January 21, 2019
Recommendations by Canada

Recommendations

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Thank you, Mr. President.

Canada welcomes the positive steps taken by New Zealand to respond to violence against women, including the adoption of a law providing workplace protections for victims of domestic violence by requiring employers to grant victims up to ten days of paid leave to allow them to escape abusive situations.

Canada recommends that New Zealand:

1. Concentrate its efforts in addressing domestic violence particularly in communities and populations experiencing higher levels of family violence and investigate the discrepancy between the increased incidence of family violence problems and offenses reported, and the downward trending number of apprehensions and prosecutions.
2. Develop, in partnership with Māori, a national strategy or plan of action to align public policy and legislation with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
3. Reform the law on abortion and take a human rights-based approach by implementing Model ‘A’ from the Law Commission report of October 2018 on ‘alternative approaches to abortion law’.

We are concerned about the levels of repeated violence against women. We urge New Zealand to provide additional funding to community groups and to refuges for women victims of violence and to invest efforts in the prevention of violence, more specifically by promoting the involvement of men and boys.

Background

According to UPR Info, a non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) that tracks the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, in the first two cycles of the UPR, New Zealand received 228 recommendations, of which 159 were accepted (an acceptance rate of 70%) and 69 noted. Canada’s previous recommendations to New Zealand were related to Indigenous peoples, child rights and poverty.

New Zealand is a democratic country whose constitution consists of various documents addressing human rights. Specifically, the two main laws which protect human rights are the New Zealand Human Rights Act 1993 and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. New Zealand has ratified seven of the nine core key human rights treaties. New Zealand has not yet ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforces Disappearance (CPED) and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICMW).

New Zealand has made significant progress to advance women’s rights including through the adoption of laws providing workplace protections for victims of domestic violence in 2018. However, gender-based violence is still a concern. New Zealand has the highest reported rate of intimate partner violence in the developed world and the fifth highest of child abuse. Intimate partner abuse is estimated to affect as many as one in three women. Among them, Māori women are twice as likely as other New Zealand women to experience some form of violence.

According to the Official Information Act, between 2013 and 2017, the number of reports of family violence has increased every year in New Zealand. However, the number of apprehensions and prosecutions has decreased. It is not clear whether this trend is due to more reporting of the problem, or increased incidences of family violence. This trend is concerning given that at least 80 per cent of family violence incidents are not reported to the police in New Zealand.

There are still wide social and economic disparities between Māori and Pākehā (New Zealanders of European descent). Those disparities often lead to Māori having lower life expectancy, higher rates of health conditions, chronic diseases and mental health, and increased rates of disability, incarceration and children in State care.

Aspects of the current New Zealand law addressing abortion can cause delay and present other barriers for women to access to health services.