New HRMI Research: NZ Failing Its Human Rights Commitments

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) has
released new data indicating that New Zealand is falling
seriously short when it comes to meeting human rights
commitments across a number of areas.

Amnesty
International Aotearoa New Zealand is deeply concerned by
this most recent data.

We note a particularly
concerning trend in relation to freedom from torture and
ill-treatment, where, since 2017 New Zealand’s score
appears to have been largely worsening (in 2017 the score
was 7.3 out of 10 and decreased to 6.5 in the latest
data).

When asked to provide more context, respondents
mentioned the following:

– Māori and Pasifika people
experience ethnic profiling by police, and discriminatory
legal systems

– People suffering abuse in state
care

– Police are less likely to help or investigate
when it comes to protecting female victims

–
Insufficient Covid-19 measures in prisons put prisoners at
risk due to poor ventilation, double-bunking, and lack of
masks

– Disabled people are more likely to be subject
to restraint at school, in state care, and in mental health
facilities

– Police beatings and violence

–
Māori people, especially Māori women, are at unique risk
for violence by Corrections Officers in New Zealand
prisons

This latest data adds to a staggering pattern
of serious human rights concerns in the criminal justice
system. In just two recent examples, the Chief Ombudsman
described an incident at Auckland Prison as amounting to
cruel treatment, and a District Court Judge found practices
amounting to “degrading and fundamentally inhumane”
treatment, as well as excessive use of force. Amnesty
International and others have documented many other serious
human rights concerns.

There is a clear need for
fundamental, system-level change.

The issues threaded
through our criminal justice system are complex and
profound, but there are pathways forward. Among them are
those set out by Ināia Tonu Nei and the extensive work done
by other researchers and advocates over many years,
including the hugely influential paper ‘He Whajpaanga
Hou’ by Moana Jackson.

Amnesty International calls
on Minister Allan and Minister Davis to accept
responsibility and bring transformational change by taking
the bold steps needed to ensure our criminal justice system
is fair and upholds human rights and dignity for
all.

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