HUMAN RIGHTS IN NEW ZEALAND 20 1 0 that DHBs continue to foster the development of The Treaty in New Zealand’s free-trade Mäori health capacity for participating in the health- agreements and-disability sector and for providing for their own In the free-trade agreements that New Zealand has signed needs; and an expectation that DHBs provide relevant with China and the ASEAN nations, clauses related to the information to Mäori to enable effective participation. Treaty of Waitangi have been included. The New Zealand– The Climate Change Response Act 2002 and the Climate China Free Trade Agreement 2008 states at Article 205 Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) that nothing in the agreement will prevent the adoption Amendment Act 2009, which finalised the details of the by New Zealand of measures to fulfil Treaty obligations emissions trading scheme, contain a section on the Treaty (provided such measures are not used as a form of of Waitangi, section 3(a). This section provides for a number of ways in which the Crown will give effect to its responsibilities under the Treaty in terms of consultation on issues of importance to Mäori, and five-yearly review. unjustified discrimination or disguised restriction on the other party).17 The same provision regarding the Treaty is included in chapter 15, Article 5 of the ASEAN–Australia– New Zealand Free Trade Agreement 2009.18 During negotiations on the emissions trading scheme, the Mäori Party was able to gain some concessions for iwi and hapü, including the ability for five iwi to farm trees on 35,000 hectares of low conservation-value land managed by the Department of Conservation, and Mäori representation in international negotiations. New Zealand today Aotearoa i tënei rä A Treaty and human rights-based path forward for New Zealand means considering the impact the situation today will have on future generations of New Zealanders. Implications for the wider Pacific: constitutional links and human rights Mäori are not only indigenous to New Zealand (many fostered by New Zealand’s early colonial but have whakapapa connections across the aspirations); high proportions of Pacific peoples wider Pacific. Although not signatories to the in New Zealand (including nearly all of the Treaty of Waitangi, Pacific peoples from Niue, population of some Pacific nations); geographical Tokelau and the Cook Islands are indigenous proximity; and constitutional links (particularly to their own islands, which are part of the in the case of the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau, wider Realm of New Zealand. The New Zealand and Samoa). government therefore has responsibilities towards them, which could be explored further. New Zealand is also a Pacific nation with responsibilities to the wider Pacific. These historical In 2000 the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs connections are becoming increasingly urgent commissioned a report from the Ministry of as climate change impacts on low-lying Pacific Justice on the constitutional position of Pacific islands such as Kiribati and Tuvalu. If the peoples in New Zealand. The Pacific Peoples land on which these Indigenous peoples live Constitution Report 2000 emphasised that disappears, what will happen to their cultures, ”New Zealand has a special relationship with languages and identities? Pacific people” due to: historical relationships 17 See Article 205 of the New Zealand–China Free Trade Agreement. Accessed 15 June 2010 from http://www/chinafta.govt.nz 18 ASEAN–Australian–New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. Accessed 15 June 2010 from http://www.asean.fta.govt.nz/assets/AgreementEstablishing-the-ASEAN-Australia-New-Zealand-Free-Trade-Area.pdf 49