Human Rights in New Zealand: A Turning Point

Description

New Zealand has long taken pride in its human rights record - and with good reason. It's not only that we were the first country in the world to give women the vote and played a prominent part in the establishment of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - more recently New Zealand has declared itself nuclear-free and taken a leading role in the creation of the world's newest human rights treaty, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.But just how good are things in practice? Are our governments living up to the promises they make when they ratify human rights treaties? Do all New Zealanders get to fully enjoy the rights they're entitled to? Much as we may not like to admit it, the answer inmany cases is no.We have some choices ahead of us. Human rights are exactly that: rights to which each member of the human race is entitled. They are about fundamental freedoms, dignity, self-worth, security and equality. They have been aspired to, fought for, negotiated and enshrined in international treaties that New Zealand claims to honour. If we want to continue as a global leader in the fulfilment of human rights, however, we must implement changes to policy and legislation, and to the public context in which rights are addressed.This book brings together an analysis of all seven major treaties on human rights to which New Zealand has signed up. It's a comprehensive survey, based on four years of research and interviews. Most importantly, it lays out a series of recommendations for practical action to ensure that the emerging faultlines in New Zealand's human rights implementation do not - to the detriment of us all - become fractures.