HUMAN RIGHTS IN NEW ZEALAND 20 1 0 crime; and police strategies for engagement with ethnic abuse. The report recommended the establishment of communities. a local reporting system, which was supported by the Monitoring hate crime In the absence of systematic data on racially motivated police, the Human Rights Commission and local councils. The Nelson Multicultural Council is following up on the crime, information about when and how this is occurring recommendation, with support from other organisations, is available only in an ad hoc way from localised studies and the Speak Out Nelson Tasman racist reporting system and media reports. Examples of incidents of racially is in the final stages of development. 23 motivated crime reported in the media include racial International student safety abuse, vandalism (such as defiling property with racist The rights of international students were identified, at the messages) and physical assaults. annual Australia and New Zealand Race Relations Round The actual number of such complaints, prosecutions Table in November 2009, as a significant human rights and convictions is still not recorded by the New Zealand concern for national, state and territory human rights Police. In the course of the UN Human Rights Council commissions in Australia and New Zealand. Commis- review of New Zealand’s human rights performance in sioners viewed instances of racial harassment, abuse and May 2009, the issue of recording police complaints was violence directed at international students as symptoms raised again (it had previously been raised by CERD in of human rights issues that need to be addressed. These 2007). The Government accepted the recommendation include international students’ rights to non-discrimina- that this data be collected, but said it was not a priority. tion; equality of treatment; security of the person; access The Review of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics Report to justice, housing and information; freedom of religion 2009 noted that measuring the motivation or basis for an and culture; and labour rights. The Ministry of Education offence is inherently challenging. It therefore concluded administers a Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of that consistently and reliably identifying offences as International Students for schools, state tertiary crimes of prejudice was problematic. 21 Offences are institutions and private training establishments with recorded by police irrespective of the motivation of New Zealand Qualifications Authority accreditation. offenders. The justice sector as a whole is making The Commissioners resolved to: improvements to its statistical recording of data in line with the review of criminal justice statistics. In 2009 the Nelson/Tasman community took significant steps toward combating racial harassment and violence in the community. The report Towards a Reporting System for Racist Incidents in Nelson/ Tasman – Diverse Communities Speak was launched in Nelson in August • highlight the treatment of international students as a major current human rights and race-relations issue and stress the importance of addressing it from a human rights perspective • note that the harassment and abuse of international students cannot be adequately addressed if the 2009. 22 Written by visiting Northern Ireland human existence of racism as a significant factor is denied rights lawyer Debbie Kohner, the report was based on • call for more research into the experience of discrimi- 30 focus groups, involving 184 people of 48 ethnicities. nation and harassment of international students in The report found that 81 per cent of participants had specific communities and contexts, including regular experienced racism and 86 per cent had witnessed it. surveys of students by education providers to provide a The frequency varied from once (or not at all) to daily better evidence base for policy decisions 21 Statistics New Zealand, Review of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics 2009. Accessed accessed 24 August 2010 from http://www.stats. govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/crime_and_justice/review-of-crime-and-criminal-justice-statistics.aspx. 22 Debbie Kohner (2009). Towards a Reporting System for Racist Incidents in Nelson/Tasman: Diverse Communities Speak (Nelson / Tasman: Nelson / Tasman District Councils). Accessible online at http://www.hrc.co.nz/hrc_new/hrc/cms/files/documents/05-Aug-2009_15-45-39_ Diverse_Communities_Speak_-_final.pdf 23 Nelson Multicultural Council, ‘Racist Reporting System’. Accessed 4 August 2010 from http://www.nelsonmulticultural.co.nz/ ONGOING+PROJECTS/Racism+Reporting+System.html 67