HUMAN RIGHTS IN NEW ZEALAND 20 1 0 on the gap in employment conditions between men and women, particularly in the area of pay equity. 27 In 2010 the UN Human Rights Committee raised concerns, in its concluding observations on New Zealand’s performance under the ICCPR, 28 about the low representation of women in high-level and managerial positions and on the boards of private enterprises. publishes an annual report on race relations, and a biennial benchmarking report on women’s progress in senior levels of governance and management. 33 The Commission has also improved how it records its own data. 34 The system is now more sophisticated, allowing a greater range of inquiries to be recorded other than just discrimination. For example, concerns about other human It is difficult to report on compliance with international rights issues, legal advice about the effect of the HRA or obligations, in the absence of an agreed-on reporting the BoRA or requests for some other form of engagement framework and comprehensive analysis of available are now recorded. Some limitations remain, however, data across the range of human- rights standards. The as it is not always possible to obtain disaggregated data UN General Assembly recently issued a compilation about complainants and complaint types, because the of guidelines of the monitoring committees of the information is either not provided or cannot be easily major treaties on the form and content of reports to be obtained. submitted by state parties. 29 This is designed to reinforce Despite these advances, the extent of discrimination accountability of states, and harmonise reporting by remains difficult to gauge nationally, as there is no com- developing cross-cutting norms as a guide to identifying plete record of who complains, where they complain and what data is necessary. It is generally agreed that to what they complain about. A range of statutory agencies, reflect the human rights norms of non-discrimination and such as the Employment Relations Service, the Office of equality, a starting point is to seek disaggregated data by the Ombudsmen, and the Health and Disability Commis- prohibited grounds of discrimination, such as sex, age, sioner, also have responsibility for dealing with complaints disability, religion, language, social, economic, regional or about discrimination, but employ different criteria to political status. 30 record those complaints. It is difficult, therefore, to Reporting of discrimination in New Zealand has improved over recent years. The Ministry of Social Development’s provide a comprehensive national overview of the extent of unlawful discrimination. Social Report includes a section on perceived discrimina- Although there have been improvements in the collection tion. 31 Statistics New Zealand now includes a specific of data over the past five years, there is still no framework question on discrimination in the New Zealand General for evaluating data overall in order to allow assessment Social Survey, which provides information about key and analysis of the extent of discrimination nationally, or social and economic outcomes.32 The Commission identification of trends or developments. 27 CESCR E/C.12/1/Add.88 (2003), para 14 28 CCPR/C/NZLCO/5 (2010), para 9 29 HRI/GEN/2/Rev.6 (3 June 2009) 30 Inter-committee meeting of human rights treaty bodies, Report on Indicators for Monitoring Compliance with International Human Rights Instruments HRI/MC/2006/7[11/5/06] 31 However, it does not measure actual discrimination, making it difficult to conclude whether levels of discrimination have increased or decreased. Ministry of Social Development (2009), Social Report 2009 (Wellington: MSD), accessed 4 November 2010 from www. socialreport.msd.govt.nz/2009/civil-political-rights/perceived-discrimination.html 32 Statistics New Zealand (2009), New Zealand General Social Survey: 2008 (Wellington: StatsNZ) 33 Human Rights Commission (2004, 2006, 2008), New Zealand Census of Women’s Participation (Auckland: HRC), 2004 census accessible online at www.hrc.co.nz/hrc_new/hrc/cms/files/documents/11-Aug-2005_21-35-04_CensusofWomens_Participation.pdf, 2006 census accessible online at http://www.hrc.co.nz/hrc_new/hrc/cms/files/documents/29-Mar-2006_17-46-13_2006_Women_Census_of_Womens_ Participation.pdf, 2006 census accessible online at www.hrc.co.nz/hrc_new/hrc/cms/files/documents/28-Mar-2008_12-59-39_2008_ Census_of_Womens_Participation.pdf 34 The number of complaints over the past five years has been relatively consistent: Part 1A complaints have ranged from 398 (2007) to 343 (2009), and part 2 complaints from 1505 (2006) to 898 (2008) 33