New Zealand Human Rights Commission Submission to the CAT in relation to NZ’s 6th periodic review  Disabled children and young people, and same-sex attracted, both sex-attracted, trans and intersex children and young people are disproportionately affected by violence in schools. Recommendations:  The Commission recommends that the Government continue to actively monitor the impact of its policies and programmes on reducing the number of children experiencing physical and sexual abuse.  The Commission recommends that the Committee urge the Government to extend its Positive Behaviour for Learning initiative to all New Zealand schools and fully implement the “Bullying Prevention and Response Strategy and Implementation Plan” agreed by the Bullying Prevention Advisory Group. 90. While there has been some good progress, the level of family violence in New Zealand is unacceptably high. New Zealand has the fifth worst child abuse record of 31 OECD countries. 91. The government has set a target for the public service to halt the ten year rise in children experiencing physical abuse and reduce the total number to 3,000 by 2017. 92. In 2014, 3178 children were physically abused, 1294 were sexually abused and 9,499 suffered emotional abuse and neglect.49 This is a decrease of 12 percent from 2013 where 3,181 children were physically abused, 1,423 were sexually abused and 11,386 suffered emotional abuse and neglect.50 49 http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1501/S00097/child-abuse-down-by-12-percent-but-still-way-too-high.htm 50 Ibid. 36