provide practical support to the Muslim community. We strongly supported
the Muslim community’s call for a coordinated, culturally sensitive and
community-responsive process. We alerted the Government to the need
for a more coordinated and people-centred response by social services to
meet the immediate and longer-term needs of the Muslim community.
The Commission continues to engage with the Royal Commission of Inquiry
into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques. We expressed concerns about its
process and encouraged as much engagement as possible with the affected
communities. We organised workshops to help those wanting to make
a submission. We continue our efforts to more fully mainstream human
rights into New Zealand’s strategies and policies to help our country and
communities recover and become stronger, safer and more united.
In June 2019, the Commission published It Happened Here: Reports of race
and religious hate crime in New Zealand 2004-2012. This brought together
for the first time our annual summaries of the media reports on racially and
religiously motivated crime between 2004 and 2012 and aims to deepen
understanding and inform discussion about the race and religious hate
crimes faced by many New Zealanders.
Impact
• Anti-racism campaign: A social media post on the Commission’s
Facebook page about our Give Nothing to Racism campaign after the
Christchurch mosque attacks, went viral reaching 2 million people. It
was liked, shared or commented on by 35,000 people.
Acknowledgements
The Commission is grateful
to former Race Relations
Commissioner Joris de Bres, for
his professional counsel and
support13 to the Commission
after the Christchurch attacks
pending the appointment of a
Race Relations Commissioner.
• The Commission facilitated the Human Rights and Te Tiriti o Waitangi
– the Treaty belongs to us all workshop with 40 interns on the Tupu Tai
Pasifika Public Sector Internship Programme. Tupu Tai is an interagency
initiative that supports Pasifika students to explore career pathways in
the public sector. The EEO Commissioner was the keynote speaker. The
Commission’s Pasifika Advisor also co-presented with MBIE’s Pacific
Policy Manager on human rights and Pasifika worker rights in the public
service to the TupuToa internship programme of 170 young Mäori and
Pacific young people.
• The Commission and the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand
wrote to 130,000 teachers promoting Give Nothing to Racism
messaging as a useful teaching tool to combat racism and promote
inclusivity.
• Over the past 18 years, the Race Unity speech awards have provided
young people with a space to deepen their understanding of race
relations issues and share their views on how we can all help to promote
unity in Aotearoa. The awards are led by the Baha’i Community with
support from the Human Rights Commission and others.
13 Temporary Race Relations Advisor from March – August 2019
26
Human Rights Commission