The Human Rights Foundation promotes and defends human rights in Aotearoa New Zealand and abroad, through research-based education and advocacy.
Denying New Zealand’s prisoners the right to vote is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights, the country’s highest court has ruled. The Supreme Court released its judgment today upholding an earlier High Court decision saying the courts had jurisdiction to make a “declaration of inconsistency”. A majority of the five Supreme Court judges, comprising Chief
Appointing a Kiwi Race Relations Commissioner is on hold while an international human rights lawyer sues the Minister of Justice over the selection process. Colin Henry, a Jamaican-born Aucklander, claims the process was unlawful. The former commissioner, Dame Susan Devoy, left in June, after a damning Ministerial review into a sexual harassment scandal, which identified serious “toxic”
Last week, the Human Rights Foundation filed a submission on the proposed amendments to the Crown Minerals Act 1991. These amendments are those intended to give effect to the ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration announced earlier this year. We made two points in our submission, namely that: Climate change is a human
Distinguished human rights advocate and lawyer Professor Paul Hunt has been appointed as Chief Human Rights Commissioner, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Mr Little also announced the appointment of Dr Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo as Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner. Professor Hunt joins the Human Rights Commission from Essex University in Britain, but had previously served
The Human Rights Foundation’s Deborah Manning, who has advised families of people killed in police pursuits, says Māori may not be getting the same level of discretion as others when police choose to pursue a vehicle. The situation Police figures show Māori make up more than half of people warned or charged following police pursuits.
Parliament is considering sweeping changes to our 25 year-old privacy laws — but some fear they will only add to the long backlog of cases before the Human Rights Review Tribunal, Thomas Coughlan reports. The Human Rights Review Tribunal wants more resourcing before changes to New Zealand’s 1993 Privacy Act come into force. The Tribunal’s
It’s past time for a real rethink of the New Zealand police’s pursuits policy: An Auckland man driving a stolen car fled police at excessive speeds before crashing into a wall, injuring himself and seriously injuring a female passenger. Shortly after 3am on Wednesday, police spotted a stolen vehicle on Springs Road in East Tamaki
The National Party has played fast and loose with the facts during its campaign to deny an entry visa to the American LGBTQ activist Chelsea Manning. First, National’s immigration spokesperson Michael Woodhouse claimed “other countries” had refused Manning entry, because of her previous felony conviction for leaking classified documents. In fact, those “other countries” consisted
“Beyond unacceptable” delays for Human Rights Tribunal claims have gotten worse, a year after a co-chairperson was appointed to help clear the backlog. Stuff revealed in February that Human Rights Review Tribunal chairman Rodger Haines had repeatedly complained to successive ministers that ballooning delays meant “access to justice is being denied to almost all”. Since 2016, he
Over the last few months, we have urged Minister of Justice Andrew Little to make sure that the appointment of human rights commissioners is non-partisan by including opposition parties in the process. Now, the Minister has agreed to do so. In May, our chair, Peter Hosking wrote in Newsroom: Justice Minister Andrew Little has moved quickly on the report
