The Commission is working with government and disabled peoples’
organisations to include many of the recommendations in the update
of the Government's Disability Action Plan. Key areas are: inclusion of
disabled students in schools; building employers’ confidence to employ
disabled people and provide accessible workplaces, ensuring disabled
people have the right to make their own decisions with support,
understanding the journey into detention of people with neurodisability,
advocating for the elimination of non-consensual, nontherapeutic
sterilisation; and the ending of seclusion in health facilities.
The Commission also attended the Conference of State Parties to the
CRPD in New York in June 2015, and is considered an international leader
on data collection and bio-ethical issues that impact on disabled people's
rights. The Commission has supported the Government's nomination of
Robert Martin to the committee of experts on the CRPD. Mr. Martin is
the first person in the world with an intellectual/ learning disability to be
nominated to this UN position.
During 2014/15 the Commission developed its second report on Tracking
Equality at Work. It has been produced as a web-based tool that allows
an analysis of employment outcomes in the areas of employment,
discrimination, leadership and pay on the basis of sex, ethnicity, age,
and disability. It is possible to track the outcomes of a particular group
across multiple indicators and it provides an evidence base that enables
monitoring progress toward work-based equality.
The Commission provided advice to Statistics New Zealand and the
representatives of other government agencies that worked on the
gender identity classification by commenting on draft documents, and
encouraging submissions on the 2014 consultation paper. The Commission
also provided links to transgender communities when Statistics New
Zealand socialised the draft consultation.
Annual Report 2015
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