Rosslyn Noonan

Chief Human Rights Commissioner Rosslyn Noonan has welcomed the decision by Justice Minister Simon Power to present New Zealand's fifth periodic report under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in New York.

The presentation takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, New Zealand time.

Ms Noonan said, "The participation is an important signal to the committee that New Zealand is serious about its domestic human rights reputation internationally and that this government is taking it seriously." The Covenant is the principal international human rights treaty affirming fundamental civil and political rights. New Zealand is required to report periodically on the implementation of the standards it sets out. The Commission shares Minister Power's view that human rights are not just rights that people exercised when they were before a court of law, but were also the right to protection of the family, mothers, and children, and the right to an adequate standard of living. The Commission has been represented in New York by Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Judy McGregor.In a session before the UN Human Rights Committee late last week, Dr McGregor noted New Zealand could reflect on a range of achievements. These included the Government's active commitment to reduce violence against children and young people, electoral finance reform and the implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT).

However, she raised a series of challenges that remain top priorities for the Human Rights Commmission: high levels of imprisonment of Māori discrimination against children and their right to education because of their immigration status the extent of child abuse and high levels of relative poverty stalled progress on pay equity.