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New Zealand attaches great importance to the advancement and implementation of human rights internationally and at home. We believe that the full and universal implementation of human rights and fundamental freedoms is essential to ending poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulating development that is truly sustainable.
Non-discrimination is an important step towards universal implementation of human rights. However, the principle of non-discrimination is not universally applied. Many categories of rights holders do not enjoy their basic human rights and many suffer additional discrimination on grounds such as race or ethnicity.
Children, indigenous peoples, women, the elderly, persons with disabilities, minorities, refugees, migrants, and persons living in poverty, are too often the victims of serious rights abuses. In addition, instances of discrimination against a person because of his or her sexual orientation are unfortunately widespread. Human rights are equal to all and all persons have, for example, the right to health regardless of their sexual orientation. Accordingly, no-one should suffer any form of discrimination, let alone be subject to torture or cruel and degrading treatment because of his or her sexual orientation.
The rights of persons with disabilities do not yet enjoy dedicated discussion in the Council. We were pleased to note that, last week, the High Commissioner for Human Rights encouraged the Council to build on the vital work done on the rights of persons with disabilities and to give the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities a proper place in our work.
The Convention embodies a shift in the way we look at persons with disabilities. It is a shift from thinking about such persons as objects of social welfare to considering them first and foremost as persons with a right to enjoy human rights, on an equal basis with everyone else. Such non-discrimination applies to the whole spectrum of rights, whether economic, cultural, civil, social or political. For example, with respect to the right to education, we need to consider how to provide inclusive and enabling environments, in particular at the primary and secondary levels of schooling, to give effect to all children’s right to education. The same can be said in respect of the right to work on an equal basis with others, the right to health, the right to take part in cultural life or the right to freedom of expression. Critically, our consideration of the rights of persons with disabilities must take due account of persons who face multiple discrimination, as well as being relevant to the spectrum of rights, whether they be economic, political, cultural, social or civil.
New Zealand attaches special priority to working with the international community to uphold women’s rights and gender equality. We strongly support a dedicated debate on the rights of women at the Council’s next session and hope that such a debate can become a regular feature of the Council’s programme of work. We believe that debate and action in the Human Rights Council on the rights of women must be broader than those issues specific to an existing special procedure. And, as we have previously stated, a regular debate on the rights of women is distinct from a methodological discussion in the Council on the integration of a gender perspective in our work.
