Submission of the New Zealand Human Rights Commission to the 18 th session of the Human Rights Council; New Zealand’s Second Universal Periodic Review. Education 17. New Zealand law requires that disabled students have the same access to education as nondisable students in state schools. Despite this, of complaints to the Human Rights Commission about a government agency, about a third are about education. Complaints to the Commission are dominated by concerns about a lack of reasonable accommodation, unfair expulsions, exclusions and stand downs, bullying and funding issues. 18. The IMM welcomes the Government’s requirement that all schools demonstrate inclusive practice by the end of 2014. While there have been some useful reforms it is difficult to see how the current suite of policies and programmes will result in fully inclusive schools. 19. One measure of the success of inclusive schools is educational achievement. Educational achievement is measured in a number of ways including national standards for primary schools, National Certificate of Educational Achievement pass rates at secondary school and international comparative studies. None of these allow a comparison of outcomes between disabled and nondisabled students. 20. Another way of measuring inclusive schools is via the incidence of bullying, harassment and other violence in schools. The work of all three partners to the IMM suggests that bullying at school is a particular issue for disabled students 21. Recommendations a That the Ministry of Education establishes an enforceable right to inclusive education. b That the Ministry of Education implements a whole of school anti-bullying programmes that ensure that schools are safe and nurturing places for disabled students. Reasonable Accommodation 22. A lack of understanding of the need for reasonable accommodation and the lack of competence to apply the principles of reasonable accommodation to specific situations is at the heart of many complaints and enquiries in both the public and private sector. The IMM 2013 Annual Report identified only a few examples of government agencies that demonstrated by their actions a clear understanding of need for and application of reasonable accommodation. 23. A particularly concerning example of the failure to provide reasonable accommodation is the failure of the health system to provide for the health needs of people with an intellectual/learning impairment. A National Health Committee report in 2003 found that the health status of people with intellectual/learning impairments was worse than the average population across many indicators, including life expectancy.33 A Ministry of Health report in 2012 confirmed the poor outcomes.34 In 2009 the Government informed the United Nations in its first UPR report that a 33 National Health Committee (2003) To Have an Ordinary Life: Kia Whai Oranga Noa. Wellington: National Advisory Committee on Health and Disability 34 Ministry Of Health (2011) Health Indicators for New Zealanders with Intellectual Disability. Wellington: Ministry of Health. 21