Shadow report on New Zealand’s progress in addressing two recommendations from the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women from the New Zealand Human Rights Commission 10 November 2014 1. Introduction 1.1. The New Zealand Human Rights Commission welcomes the opportunity to provide country-specific information relevant to the implementation of CEDAW by the State Party, New Zealand. The New Zealand Human Rights Act 1993 aims to “provide better protection of human rights in New Zealand in general accordance with United Nations Covenants or Conventions on Human Rights.” 1.2. The New Zealand Human Rights Commission is an independent national human rights institution with “A” status accreditation. It derives its statutory mandate from the Human Rights Act 1993. 1.3. New Zealand presented its seventh report to the CEDAW committee in 2012 at the 52nd session. The CEDAW committee’s concluding observations included the request that the state party provide, “within two years, written information on the steps undertaken to implement the recommendations contained in paragraphs 36 and 38...” 1.4. In 2013/2014 New Zealand underwent its second Universal Periodic Review (“UPR”) before the Human Rights Council. The New Zealand Human Rights Commission was actively involved in this process. Drawing on the recommendations made by the CEDAW committee and ongoing concerns raised through stakeholder submissions, states made a series of recommendations to New Zealand reinforcing the urgent need to address a number of enduring issues.1 Recommendation 36 (a) Provide in its next report data and information on situation of women with disabilities; rural women; older women; and women from ethnic minorities especially in relation to access to education, employment and health-care services. 1.5. 1 The Human Rights Commission have been advocating for better and more frequent data collection for vulnerable groups for a considerable period. It continues to be concerned that the five yearly census (which was delayed by two years by the infrastructure damage caused by the Christchurch earthquakes) is the only time that employment data (and indeed other social indicators) is collected for people with disabilities. Analysis of information released about people with disabilities collected in the disability survey on the back of the census show that the accumulated effect of disability and gender is strong. http://www.hrc.co.nz/international-human-rights-ne/upr-1314-nzs-second-universal-periodic-review/