Tē tōia, tē haumatia Nothing can be achieved without a plan, workforce and way of doing things. This year was a year of investment in change for the Human Rights Commission. We reviewed the organisation to ensure that the Commission is more responsive and relevant to all New Zealanders. This required an investment in recalibrating the Commission to be effective in its current and future environment. It required changes to the way we are structured, what we do and how we do it, and how we communicate with Government, business and civil society. This investment has set us up to become a more nimble and flexible organisation that delivers on the human rights issues that face New Zealand. While we did this we continued to deliver on some key priorities. New Zealand was subject to its second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the United Nations in January. The United Nations Human Rights Council noted many positive achievements and said that there was much to learn from our country’s experience. New Zealand’s strong reputation on human rights and a commitment to equal treatment for all people was recognised. It was acknowledged that unacceptable violence and abuse, inequalities and discrimination continue to persist. In Canterbury, the earthquake recovery continues to present challenges to rights to property, housing, health and the right of people to participate in decisions that affect them. The UPR provided an important opportunity for the New Zealand public and interested groups to provide valuable insights into human rights concerns and draw attention to relevant issues in their communities. A wide range of non-government organisations and community groups submitted feedback to inform the UPR process, many more than during the last UPR in 2009. New Zealand’s mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) proved its worth this year. Many disabled people were left frustrated by the passage by Parliament, under urgency, of the Public Health and Disability Amendment Act. However, shortly afterward, the CRPD monitoring partners met with chief executives of government agencies to seek action to advance the rights of disabled people. We demanded a fresh approach which resulted in disabled peoples’ organisations and government agencies agreeing to co-develop and co-govern a new national disability strategy. In May 2014, the Disability Action Plan 2014–18 was approved by Cabinet. 6 Human Rights Commission