Foreword My role is to promote and protect the full and equal enjoyment of disabled people’s human rights.1 The government has Te Tiriti o Waitangi and human rights obligations to commit all available resources and measures to prevent, protect against, and rehabilitate from, all forms of violence and abuse of disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori.2 I commissioned this report and the companion report Whakamanahia Te Tiriti, Whakahaumarutia te Tangata (Honour the Treaty, Protect the Person) focused specifically on Te Tiriti and issues affecting tāngata whaikaha Māori to provide evidence of those concerns and to offer a Tiriti and human rights roadmap to address them. In January 2019, the Minister of Justice reported to the United Nations Human Rights Council: “Women are twice as likely to suffer partner abuse than men. Māori women, queer women, trans women, women living with a disability and young women experience more violence and are more likely to be re-victimised by current systems. This government is determined to ensure that New Zealanders can live free from violence. Our system is failing New Zealand women, girls and families. We need to transform our system by focusing on prevention, early intervention, integrated responses and new approaches to service delivery. I welcome the Minister’s comment that our rates of family and sexual violence represent a human rights failure and that disabled people are among those who bear a disproportionate burden of that failure. For too long disabled people and tangata whaikaha Māori have been invisible in the nation’s growing awareness of the significant problem of family, sexual and other forms of violence. Violence is one of the gravest symptoms of ableism which is systemic discrimination or prejudice against disabled people. Only by addressing the underlying structural causes of ableism will we successfully empower disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori. A key step is to recognise the magnitude of violence affecting disabled people. Conservatively that magnitude is estimated as twice the overall rate for non-disabled people, increasing to between four and five times the rate for disabled children and women. This report provides an extensive evidence base and graphic illustration of the many and long-standing risks of violence and abuse and barriers to reaching safety that disabled people experience. These risks are created by prejudice and discrimination which isolate and disempower disabled people and tāngata whaikaha Māori. To be effective, remedies must therefore take a Tiriti o Waitangi and human rights approach that addresses structural contributors. Implementing a Tiriti o Waitangi and human rights response is one that: • ensures Māori are able to exercise selfdetermination • addresses structural inequalities • respects the leadership of disabled people and community • recognises how different types of discrimination can intersect and add to disadvantage • is transparent and accountable to the rights holders it must serve. Acting now for a violence and abuse free future 5