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Criminal justice
recommendations
The following secondary recommendations could be
further explored and developed within the National
Action Plan Against Racism. See Appendix One.
The government consider the following actions:
• With tino rangatiratanga partners, government
develop and implement a comprehensive reform
of Aotearoa’s justice system with the goal of
abolishing prisons by 2040.
• Review legislation relating to the justice system
process, including the Sentencing Act (2002), Bail
Act (2000), Criminal Procedure Act (2011) and all
legislation relating to care and protection, and
ensure it reflects Te Tiriti o Waitangi, te ao Māori,
and tikanga Māori approaches to justice.
• Establish a Mana Ōrite justice partnership
under which Māori and Crown agencies share
governance and decision-making at all levels of
the justice sector. Tikanga and te ao Māori values
to be central to the operation of the justice system.
• A kaupapa Māori-based evaluation of the
current youth, specialist and therapeutic courts
across Aotearoa is completed. Key learnings and
principles from kaupapa models are embedded
across the mainstream court process. More
specialist courts focused on rangatahi, sexual
violence, alcohol and other drug treatment, and
family violence courts are established.
• Institutional racism is challenged within the
justice system through law changes, more diverse
recruitment and effective training in the justice
system, as well as anti-racist school programmes
and media campaigns.
Human Rights Commission