25 Feb 2015

NZ needs work on human rights - report

4:38 pm on 25 February 2015

In its annual report on the state of the world's human rights, Amnesty International says New Zealand still has work to do on fundamental human rights.

Amnesty said levels of child poverty and family violence remained high and, in 2014, New Zealand rejected international recommendations to address inequality.

The damning annual report has called 2014 a 'catastrophic' year for millions of people worldwide suffering barbarous attacks and repression.

Released earlier today, its annual report on the state of the world's human rights criticised the international community's failure to find workable solutions to the atrocities being commited by states and armed groups, such as Islamic State.

It urged reform of Security Council veto powers that effectively enabled violence in Syria, Iraq, Gaza, Israel and Ukraine.

New Zealand came under fire for the potential threat to the right to privacy and freedom of movement by the passing of the foreign fighters legislation in October, as did the extension of the Government Communications Security Bureau's powers.

Amnesty was also concerned that Maori make up 50 percent of the prison population, despite only being 15 percent of the general population.

It maintained its concerns about the legal status of 17-year-olds, which meant they were considered adults under criminal law, in breach of the United Nations declaration on the rights of the child.

Many of the concerns about New Zealand were the same in the organisation's 2013 report.

The Green Party said that the report was further evidence the Government has failed to address child poverty.

Co-leader Metiria Turei said that the Government had a poor attitude to the rights of children and that the report clearly showed that child poverty was still a major problem.

Mrs Turei said the Government had a chance tonight to take action by supporting her member's bill to feed the children during its first reading in Parliament.

The report also slammed Australia, particularly over its offshore processing of asylum seekers and the detention of children.

It also condemned the high number of indigenous people in Australian prisons and described legislation introduced in the name of counter-terrorism and security as regressive.