specific ethnic communities3. 8. Recommendation 1: That the Committee urges the Government to: (a) review the adequacy of current structures and processes to respond appropriately to New Zealand’s changing demographics; and (b) make necessary changes to ensure that the diversity of the population is appropriately reflected in planning and delivery of services; and (c) develop and implement measures aimed at increasing social cohesion. New Zealand’s second National Action Plan on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (LOT 2) 9. The National Plan of Action (“NPA”)4 is a web-based interactive tool that tracks Government progress against the recommendations made by the Human Rights Council following New Zealand’s second Universal Periodic Review in 2014. 10. Over 50 civil society submissions, representing more than 250 groups and individuals, were sent to the Committee for the purposes of the UPR review. These outlined the key human rights challenges and issues facing Aotearoa New Zealand. 11. Based on the issues raised, the committee made 155 recommendations to New Zealand. The Government accepted 121 of these recommendations5 and the NPA captures the actions and commitments that the Government made to give effect to them. 12. Fifty-six of the recommendations made to New Zealand in its 2014 UPR relate to implementation of CERD. Of these, 44 were accepted. A full assessment of the actions the Government has taken to address the 44 accepted recommendations is available at: http://npa.hrc.co.nz/#/treatybody/cerd. Independence of the Race Relations Commission (LOT 3) 3 For a list of public chief executives see State Services Commission, Public Service Chief Executives, 3 July 2017, available to access at http://www.ssc.govt.nz/sites/all/files/SSC%20Exec%20Chart%203%20July%202017_0.pdf. In addition, it appears that none of the leaders of the 17 independent Crown entities are from an ethnic minority background. A list of independent Crown entities can be accessed at http://www.ssc.govt.nz/state_sector_organisations 4 http://npa.hrc.co.nz/#/ 5 Among the recommendations not accepted, were recommendations to ratify and implement ILO 169 on Indigenous Peoples 4