times).157 Tāngata whaikaha Māori158 continue to be secluded at higher rates than the general population. 134. The Commission welcomes the recent publication of updated Guidelines for Reducing and Eliminating Seclusion and Restraint Under the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992. The Commission provided feedback into the updated Guidelines and is supportive of the Te Tiriti and human rights-based approach adopted. However, the Government must go further in bringing about legislative change to bring the framework in line with Aotearoa New Zealand’s human rights obligations.159 135. The Committee may wish to ask the Government to provide an update on actions taken to meet the goal of zero seclusion. Children and young people in detention (List of Issues item 20) 136. In 2018 the Government raised the upper age that children or young people fall within the youth justice system from 16 to 17 years old. However, the minimum age of criminal responsibility (the age that children can be prosecuted for criminal offending) in Aotearoa New Zealand is currently set at 10 years old.160 The Committee for the Rights of the Child recently recommended that Aotearoa New Zealand raises the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14 years for all children regardless of the offence.161 137. The Commission is concerned that Courts retain the power to remand a child into police custody,162 an order that practically results in children and young people being held in police cells until alternative arrangements can be found. These orders are used as a last resort measure in cases where Oranga Tamariki does not have appropriate residential accommodation available for a child or young person subject to a custody order. The Youth Court has criticised the practice as a breach of the Convention.163 157 Ministry of Health. 2022. Office of the Director of Mental Health and Addiction Services: Regulatory Report 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021. Wellington: Ministry of Health, available at https://www.health.govt.nz/publication/office-directormental-health-and-addiction-services-regulatory-report-1-july-2020-30-june-2021. 158 “Whaikaha” has become increasingly more widely used by many in the disability world in Aotearoa to describe themselves. See Whaikaha Ministry of Disabled People “Finding out name” available at: https://www.whaikaha.govt.nz/about-us/who-we-are/finding-our-names/. 159 We note that in 2022, the CRPD Committee concluding observations on Aotearoa in 2022 raised serious concerns “about the continued, and in some cases prolonged, use of solitary confinement, seclusion, physical and chemical restraints and other restrictive practices on persons with disabilities, in particular persons with psychosocial and/or intellectual disabilities, in places of detention.” The Committee recommended that the Government “take immediate action to eliminate the use of solitary confinement, seclusion, physical and chemical restraints and other restrictive practices in places of detention.” See Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Concluding observations on the combined second and third periodic reports of Aotearoa New Zealand, UN Doc. CRPD/C/NZL/CO/2-3 (26 September 2022) at [30], CRPD/C/NZL/CO/2-3 (26 September 2022) at [30] available at https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRPD%2FC%2FNZL%2FCO% 2F2-3&Lang=en. 160 Children ages 10 and 11 can be charged with murder or manslaughter and children aged 12 and 13 can also be sentenced for serious of persistent offending under the Crimes Act 1961. 161 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of New Zealand at [43] available at https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC%2FC%2FNZL%2FCO%2F 6&Lang=en. 162 Section 238(1)(e) of the Oranga Tamariki Act. 163 Police v BM, Youth Court, Christchurch, 28 November 2016, Minute of Judge Murfitt at [6]. 33