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Although we have tried to use plain English content on the site, you may come across specialist terms and acronyms. Find out what they mean in our glossary of terms.
If you come across a term that isn't included in the Glossary please send us an email.
New Zealand is strongly committed to the protection and promotion of international human rights, as embodied in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and in the key human rights treaties.
Our human rights activities operate at three levels: bilateral, regional and multilateral. Within the Ministry, the United Nations, Human Rights and Commonwealth Division provides policy advice on multilateral human rights issues. In an effort to "mainstream" human rights, responsibility for country specific human rights issues rest with the appropriate regional divisions.
New Zealand actively supports human rights capacity building efforts at the regional level spearheaded by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Through NZAID we contribute to the work of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights through a series of Voluntary Funds. Among the Office's priorities are the development of national human rights institutions, adoption of national plans of action, and increased human rights education and awareness-raising. Encouraging progress is being made in these areas and the Ministry continues to liaise on a regular basis with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Secretariat of the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions.
Consistent with our internationalist tradition, New Zealand seeks to play an active and constructive role in multilateral human rights forums, notably in the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly and the new Human Rights Council.
We participate actively in multilateral work on thematic issues, notably those focused on the rights of women, children and indigenous peoples, as well as monitoring country-specific human rights issues, particularly in the Asia Pacific region.
The United Nations, Human Rights and Commonwealth Division values its open dialogue with non-governmental organisations and national human rights institutions, in particular, the New Zealand Human Rights Commission. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the New Zealand Handbook on International Human Rights was published as an outline of the international human rights framework from a New Zealand perspective. This Handbook has since been updated and reprinted.
As a member of the United Nations, New Zealand supports the human rights provisions of the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We are also a party to the seven core international human rights instruments which follow. Links to the following can be found in the Related Resources section of this page.
These instruments impose obligations upon parties, including requirements for regular reporting on implementation of the treaties. The latest reports are available from New Zealand's Treaty Body Reports page.
The first Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights enables individuals who consider that their rights under the Covenant have been breached and who have exhausted domestic remedies, to put their concerns to the Human Rights Committee established under the Covenant. Since New Zealand became party to the complaints procedure in 1988, a number of complaints alleging breaches of the Covenant by the New Zealand Government have been lodged with the UN Human Rights Committee but so far only two have ever been upheld. New Zealand is also a party to the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR on the abolition of the death penalty.
In September 2000 at the UN Millennium Summit New Zealand became the ninth state party to the new Optional Protocol to CEDAW, when Prime Minister Helen Clark signed and deposited New Zealand’s instrument of ratification of the treaty. The Optional Protocol, which was opened for signature in December 1999, sets out to strengthen the Convention by allowing communications claiming breaches of rights under CEDAW to be lodged with the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
The Committee will only be able to consider communications once it has been shown that domestic avenues of redress have been exhausted. As well as the communications mechanism, the Optional Protocol also gives the Committee power to investigate grave and systematic breaches of women’s rights. The Committee’s findings will not be legally binding on state parties to the Optional Protocol, nevertheless they will have substantial moral and political force. The Optional Protocol entered into force on 22 December 2000. In September 2003, New Zealand signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture. New Zealand is now working towards ratification of the Optional Protocol.
