6 S e c t i o n ONE – G ENE RAL 1. Introduction Körero whakataki Human Rights in New Zealand 2010 maps how well groups that make up contemporary New Zealand. Human human rights are promoted, protected and implemented rights are equally vital to peace, security and sustainable in New Zealand. development worldwide. This is the second comprehensive report undertaken by In 2004 the Commission found that there was much to the Human Rights Commission to assess how well New celebrate about New Zealand’s human rights record; Zealand meets international human-rights standards and that New Zealand had the key elements essential for the where we fall short. It highlights improvements since the protection, promotion and fulfilment of human rights; and first assessment in 2004 and identifies where there has that most people experienced the fundamental rights and been some deterioration. It pinpoints areas of fragility, freedoms in their daily lives and had the opportunity to persistent and entrenched inequalities, and gaps in participate in all aspects of society. human-rights protections. The most pressing human-rights issues identified in 2004 What is clear, as it was in 2004, is that human rights were the poverty and abuse experienced by a significant matter. Their realisation is vital to our expectations about number of children and young people; the pervasive life, education, health, work, our personal security, equal barriers that prevented disabled people from fully partici- opportunity and fair treatment, and to our system of pating in society; the vulnerability to abuse of those in government. They affect the lives of everyone in New detention and institutional care; the entrenched economic Zealand. Respect for each other’s human rights is a pre- and social inequalities that continued to divide Mäori requisite for harmonious relations among the diverse and Pacific people from other New Zealanders; and the Thirty priority areas for action on human rights in New Zealand: SECTION ONE ��� GENERAL Parliament 1 Strengthening Parliament’s human-rights responsibilities by establishing a Human Rights Select Committee and tabling human-rights reports in Parliament Civil society 2 Establishing a fund to support civil-society participation in international human-rights mechanisms Equality and Freedom from Discrimination Substantive equality 3 Incorporating a specific reference to equality in the Bill of Rights Act and the Human Rights Act Human Rights and the Treaty of Waitangi Pathways to partnership 4 Developing and implementing new pathways to partnership between Tangata Whenua and the Crown Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 5 Promoting awareness of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in New Zealand Structural discrimination 6 Investigating the extent to which structural discrimination underlies entrenched racial inequalities, and developing programmes to address it Languages 7 Developing and implementing a national languages policy International Human Rights Framework Human Rights and Race Relations