11. Address tāngata whaikaha Māori and
disabled people’s lack of access to the
determinants of health and wellbeing
•
developing processes to support decisionmaking, rather than substituted decisionmaking, if people are unable to make
autonomous decisions
Violence proliferates when there are imbalances
of power, people have few choices, and are not
supported to be autonomous and self-defining.
To prevent this, we recommend:
•
shifting decision-making about disabilityrelated issues to within the disability
community and provide resource to build
capability and capacity within the community
•
•
resourcing and supporting whānau and
families to support their disabled family
members.
all tāngata whaikaha Māori and disabled
people have an income that enables them
to live in warm, safe and dry accessible
homes; pay all bills, participate fully in the
community and purchase and manage
the support that they require (Article 28,
UNCRPD)
•
all tāngata whaikaha Māori, Deaf and
disabled people (children and adults)
have equitable access to life-long learning,
including full support to achieve at primary
and secondary school and in tertiary training
of their choice (Article 24, UNCRPD)
•
all organisations/businesses are required
to make appropriate accommodations and
ensure full accessibility of services and
information to enable tāngata whaikaha
Māori and disabled people to participate in
employment of their choice (refer Articles
9/27 UNCRPD).
12. Enhance disabled people’s access to
justice
Disabled people in Aotearoa have recognised
that a barrier to the disclosure of abuse is the
lack of credibility accorded to tāngata whaikaha
Māori, Deaf, disabled people and adults at
risk by police and justice sector staff, including
judges. This is discriminatory and contravenes
disabled people’s right to justice (Article 13,
UNCRPD) and the right to equal recognition
before the law (Article 12, UNCRPD).
We therefore recommend:
•
including the justice sector and police,
in consultation with tāngata whaikaha
Māori and disabled people in all upskilling,
policy development and other processes
to develop safe, intersectional police and
justice sector responses to violence and
abuse.
•
changing attitudes and developing justice
sector understanding of legal capacity
(UNCRPD, Article 12), supported decisionmaking versus substituted decisionmaking185 and tāngata whaikaha Māori and
disabled people’s right to be recognised as
competent, legitimate witnesses.186
In turn this will require:
58
•
strengthening legislation and policies in
relation to reasonable accommodation and
accessibility
•
addressing discrimination in hiring practices
and changing societal knowledge about,
and attitudes to, disabled people (Article 8,
UNCRPD)
•
developing systems to ensure tāngata
whaikaha Māori and disabled people can
fully participate in political processes on an
equal basis with others (Article 29, UNCRPD)
•
developing systems to ensure tāngata
whaikaha Māori and disabled people can
fully participate in leisure and cultural
activities with others of their choice (Article
30, UNCRPD)
Human Rights Commission