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January 29, 2014 at 10:28 AM

You can click here to see a copy of the second New Zealand report on its Universal Periodic Report November 2013 (UPR) to the UN Human Rights Council w and was examined by the UN UPR Committee this week.

This review checks up on New Zealand performances to comply with all the core UN human rights treaties.

There were generally commendations for New Zealand from the 76 states that dialogued on its report.

Issues and questions raised by the Working Group included, among others:

• Efforts to address instances of violence against women;
• Steps taken to improve the rights of children;
• Measures to eliminate the gender pay gap;
• Steps to advance the human rights of indigenous populations, especially the Maori population;
• Efforts to secure Maori political participation;

and also gave recommendations to New Zealand including : 

• To develop an action plan in consultation with all relevant actors a comprehensive action plan to target gender-based violence and violence against women;
• To allocate adequate resources to ensure the full implementation of measures to prevent violence against women and children;
• To increase efforts to investigate and prosecute alleged trafficking offenders and adopt legislation that will expand New Zealand’s current anti-trafficking legal framework to prohibit and adequately punish all forms of human trafficking;
• To develop a national action plan for women to address issues such as violence against women, pay equality, the situation of Maori and Pacific women and women with disabilities;
• To take further measures to eliminate the gender pay gap across all groups and ethnicities;
• To take further steps to advance the human rights of indigenous populations and reduce the remaining social differences for and discrimination against the Maori population;
• To step up efforts to prevent discrimination against members of the Maori and Pasifika communities in the criminal justice system and, in particular, the high rates of incarceration;
• To ensure the national consultation process involved indigenous persons on matters of their concern;
• To strengthen efforts to secure Maori political participation at the national level aimed at increasing Maori participation in local governance;
• To identify human rights and gender implications in the development policies and rebuilding efforts for the Canterbury earthquakes and to speed up the rebuilding and compensation process in the aftermath of the earthquakes;
• To ensure that surveillance legislation was consistent with international law;

Read the UNOHCHR media brief here