We promote, monitor and report on the government’s compliance with international human rights obligations • The publication of Making Disability Rights Real, the third report of the Independent Monitoring Mechanism (IMM) of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities relates to the period 2014 to 2019. New Zealand’s IMM partners are the Disabled People’s Organisations’ (DPO) Coalition, the Ombudsman and the Human Rights Commission. • The 17 July 2019 Report of the UN Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity featured a range of New Zealand examples of good practice and of human rights issues, from the New Zealand Human Rights Commission’s submission. The Commission’s submission was cited 10 times. • The Government’s adoption of 160 Universal Periodic Review recommendations made by the UN Human Rights Council in July 2019 provides a clear roadmap to progress human rights in New Zealand. Before lodging submissions, the Commission and the Government consulted widely with Non Government Organisations (NGOs) and community groups. • In June 2020, the Commission made a Submission to the Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences: The impact of COVID-19 and the increase of domestic violence against women. It concludes with a number of recommendations to the New Zealand Government to address domestic violence in Aotearoa during pandemic situations and in the recovery from COVID-19. • The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) Working Group on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, chaired by the Disability Rights Commissioner, completed a report of good practice of national human rights institutions in monitoring the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) based on research of GANHRI members. This report is the first resource to be submitted to the repository of good practice and with the support of the United Nations Development Programme will be a searchable database of good practice in monitoring of the CRPD. Human rights are protected by providing an accessible, effective avenue for complaints about discrimination to be heard and received • The Commission received 5915 new human rights enquiries and complaints in 2019/20. Of these, 1445 were complaints of alleged unlawful discrimination. • Many individual outcomes were recorded by our dispute resolution service, as well as some which resulted in systemic and social change • The Director of Human Rights Proceedings made 65 decisions on applications for legal representation in the Human Rights Review Tribunal. Of these, the Director granted legal representation to 19 applicants. 6 Human Rights Commission Annual Report 2019/20