The New Zealand Human Rights Commission is New Zealand’s National Human Rights Institution (NHRI). It is accredited as an “A” status NHRI. One of the Commission’s functions pursuant to section 5 (2) (kc) of the Human Rights Act 1993 is to “to promote and monitor compliance by New Zealand with, and the reporting by New Zealand on, the implementation of international instruments on human rights ratified by New Zealand.” Background 1. The Commission welcomes the opportunity to provide this submission to the Committee on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination (“Committee”) for the purposes of New Zealand’s twenty-first and twenty-second periodic reviews under the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination (“CERD”). 2. This submission sets out the Commission’s views on the key challenges in relation to New Zealand’s implementation of CERD. It addresses four high level issues and then provides more detailed information aligned with the List of Themes (“LOT”) released by the Committee on 29 June 2017. The Commission made a submission to the Committee to inform its development of the LOT. This submission should be read alongside the Commission’s earlier submission on the LOT. 3. The four high level issues that the Commission wishes to draw to the Committee’s attention for the purposes of the review are as follows: (a) The adequacy of current government structures and processes to deal with New Zealand’s changing demographics. (b) The need for a cohesive approach across the justice, law enforcement and penal systems to address the significant ethnic disparities in detention rates and criminal justice outcomes. (c) The importance of better data collection about hate crimes and the scope of the current “hate speech” legislation that is in place. (d) The need for strengthened protection and comprehensive implementation of Treaty and indigenous rights, including self-determination and participation, both as fundamental rights in themselves and as a means of addressing disparities experienced by Māori across a range of outcomes. 2