HUMAN RIGHTS IN NEW ZEALAND 20 1 0 state recognises it as international law and accepts an obligation to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights within it. The duty to respect a right requires the state to refrain from carrying out any actions which violate it. The duty to protect requires action by that state to prevent violation by others. The duty to promote means a state should raise awareness of the right, and the duty to fulfil requires the state to take steps to ensure the full realisation of the right. instrument. Where a country cannot bring its domestic legislation into line with all the articles in a particular convention or covenant before ratification, a state can register a unilateral reservation “…whereby it purports to exclude or modify the legal effect of certain provisions of the treaty in their application to that state”. 9 Countries such as New Zealand, which postpone ratification until their domestic legislation is principally compliant with the treaty in question, tend to seek few reservations. States approach ratification differently. Some ratify with the intention of working towards implementing the objectives and standards of the documents. Others ratify only when their laws substantially comply with the International accountability Once a state has ratified a treaty, it does not have an unfettered discretion in how it goes about giving effect to FIGURE 1: ELEMENTS of the UNITED NATIONS human rights FRAMEWORK 10 General Assembly Third Committee (Human Rights) Security Council UN Programmes & Organisations UNHCR UNWOMEN UNICEF UNDP International Court of Justice UN Human Rights Council Treaty Monitoring Bodies Human Rights Committee Committee on Economic Social & Cultural Rights Committee Against Torture Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women Working Groups 9 UN Secretariat Special Procedures Universal Periodic Review Working Groups Special Rapporteurs & Representatives Human Rights Advisory Committee Thematic Country ECOSOC Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Committee on the Rights of the Child Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers & Members of their Families Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Commission on the Status of Women Specialised Agencies WHO ILO Committees on NGOs FAO UNESCO Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties,1969. A reservation cannot be registered against an essential (or non-derogable) provision of a treaty, since this would defeat the purpose of ratifying it in the first place. 10 Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (2008), p 2. The diagram was amended in 2010 to reflect changes to the UN structure since 2008. 15