Overview Purpose The Protection Framework incorporates multiple elements, and this briefing assesses the human rights and Te Tiriti implications of vaccination certificates, and provides specific recommendations. These statements are intended to aid public understanding about the impact on their human rights, presented in a simple and accessible format. They are also published as guidance for policy-makers and parliamentarians as legislation to support the new Covid-19 Protection Framework is tabled and implemented. The information has been drawn from an analysis of recent complaints to the Human Rights Commission, which have more than doubled since the appearance of the Delta variant three months ago. The Briefings also come after careful assessment of all arguments in terms of the respective issues, and after seeking advice from outside the Commission on specific issues. At the most fundamental level, wellbeing, human rights and Te Tiriti o Waitangi must lie at the heart of the policies and laws that establish and govern the Government’s response to Covid-19. The International Bill of Human Rights1 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples underpin this approach. Recognition that efforts to address health and other disparities affecting Māori are unlikely to be effective if they are not real partnerships upholding Māori tino rangatiratanga, are clearly vital to any response to Covid-19. 1 Human rights in a public health emergency Under human rights law some rights can be limited by public health measures which respond to the outbreak of a disease posing a serious threat to the health of a population.2 Also, balances have to be struck between competing human rights. In the context of COVID-19, for example, a balance has to be struck between the rights to life, healthcare and health protection, on the one hand, and the rights to work, assembly and movement, on the other. International human rights law principles set out when and how public health measures may limit rights.3 Such measures must be specifically aimed at preventing disease. They must also be provided for, and carried out in accordance with, the law and be strictly necessary in a democratic society to achieve their objective. They must be proportionate, reasonable, non-discriminatory, 1 The International Bill of Rights is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 2 Our own domestic human rights law enables rights to be limited under the provisions of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Also see Footnote 2 above: Four Aviation Security Service Employees v Minister of COVID-19 Response [2021] NZHC 3012 at [24] and [143]. 3 The Siracusa Principles 1984 in particular clauses 25 and 26; see also the UN Human Rights Committee Statement on derogations from the Covenant in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, CCPR/C/128/2 (24 April 2020) Specific conditions briefing: upholding human rights protections in the use of vaccination certificates under Aotearoa’s proposed Covid-19 Protection Framework