How to improve the Aotearoa New Zealand Code of Practice for Online Safety and Harms? 1. Context matters The unique context of Aotearoa includes: • • • • • the systematic dispossession of Māori land and the ongoing impacts of colonisation; te Tiriti o Waitangi (te Tiriti) and the crucial importance of ensuring the culture of tangata whenua, the uniquely Indigenous people of Aotearoa, is recognised and flourishes; enduring discrimination on race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, sexual orientation and other prohibited grounds; there is evidence of increasing discrimination, amplified by social media, eroding social cohesion in Aotearoa;3 the need for a dynamic inclusive multiculturalism grounded on te Tiriti and underpinned by respect (manaakitanga) and human rights for all. When applying human rights, te Tiriti, and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to the Code, it is important to ask, does the Code adequately recognise and reflect the unique historical, demographic, economic, social, cultural, environmental, and legal context of Aotearoa? UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan spoke for the last time to the UN Commission on Human Rights in 2005. On this notable occasion, he emphasised that “the era of [human rights] declaration is now giving way, as it should, to an era of [human rights] implementation.”4 The Secretary-General’s insight has major human rights implications. By their nature, declarations of human rights are likely to be high-level and abstract. But effective, meaningful, real-life, practical implementation of human rights requires a deep appreciation of context. One country’s unique context may demand one set of operational measures, while the unique context in another country may demand a different set of measures. Of course, all measures must comply with, and not lower, human rights standards. 4