4 H U M A N R I G H T S COMMISSION | A FAIR GO FOR ALL? part of the system, i.e. “how we do things around here.” • barriers to employment or professional advancement Put simply, it can be discrimination by habit, rather than experienced by ethnic minorities, including difficulty intent.13 obtaining interviews because of overseas qualifications Because it is located in habits and built into structures and and “foreign-sounding” names.15 systems in often covert ways, structural discrimination In order to combat the effects of structural discrimination, can be more difficult for those in power to identify than the Püao-te-ata-tü report called for: individual discrimination or personal bias. Researchers have conscious effort to make our institutions more culturally inclusive in their character, more accommodating of cultural difference. This does not begin and end at “the counter”. The change must penetrate to the recruitment and qualifications which shape the authority structures themselves. identified a specialised form of structural discrimination in New Zealand, referring to “inclusion in principle, through use of encompassing and inclusive speech, together with a resource-based exclusion supporting disparity in fact.”14 Organisations or systems may not be conscious that their rules and practices discriminate against specific ethnic groups. Yet these unconscious practices serve to perpetuate disadvantage. Consciously examining organisational rules, systems and practices through the “lens” of structural discrimination allows possible bias to This report seeks to re-start the conversation about how best to do this. structural discrimination be appropriately addressed. Structural discrimination and the Human Rights Act 1993 Examples of structural discrimination on the basis of race, In New Zealand, the Human Rights Act 1993 (HRA) colour, ethnicity or national origin can include: does not specifically include a definition of structural come into view. Only when any bias becomes visible, can discrimination. Discrimination on the grounds of race, • racial profiling by security and law enforcement agencies colour, ethnicity or national origin, however, is unlawful i.e. the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in under the HRA, and includes both direct and indirect determining whether a person is considered likely to discrimination. Structural discrimination can be considered commit a particular type of crime or an illegal act. An a form of indirect discrimination. Indirect discrimination example is when people of a particular ethnic group are occurs when an action or policy – including omission of more frequently stopped by police while driving for no an action or policy – that appears to treat everyone in the obvious reason same way, actually has a disproportionate, negative effect • support for measures that have a disproportionately on a person or group that cannot be objectively justified negative effect on minority ethnic groups e.g. cutting on one of the grounds in the HRA (in this case, race, colour, funding to specific targeted programmes that are ethnicity or national origin).16 shown to improve outcomes for minority groups or The Human Rights Commission is mandated by the implementing one-size-fits-all standards that do not HRA to receive and act upon complaints of unlawful account for different needs and values discrimination. Part 1A of the HRA applies the New • under- or mis-representation of particular ethnic groups in the media Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (BORA) non-discrimination standard to public sector activities. This includes indirect discrimination (see Northern Regional Health Authority v • insufficient, patchy or poor-quality data collection on ethnicity • medical care and rehabilitation services that fail to Human Rights Commission [1998] 2 NZLR 218; (1997) 4 HRNZ 37 (HC).17 Part 2 applies primarily to the private sector and makes account for the different health needs and cultural it unlawful to discriminate in certain areas on any of values of different communities the prohibited grounds. The areas are employment,