Petitioner wants abusers sterilised

Diane Howell thinks jailed child abusers should be sterilised so they cannot have children again. Photo / George Novak

A Tauranga woman is hoping to get thousands of signatures for a petition calling for compulsory sterilisation for jailed child abusers.

Diane Howell, with her friend Anthony Jenner, is calling for a law change that would see jailed child abusers sterilised. They will be hitting Tauranga streets this weekend to collect signatures.

The 64-year-old said those who were incarcerated for abusing babies and children should not be allowed to have children.

"If they can do that to a child they have given away their right, their privilege, to ever have children again. I feel physically sick, I feel nauseous when I read about them."

Mrs Howell said New Zealand had the fifth-worst child abuse record in the OECD and "nothing seems to be working as children are still dying from the abuse".

"We don't believe that people who kill their children and go to jail should be able to come out and have more children."

Mrs Howell said she was passionate about child protection.

"I have never been abused. There has been no abuse in our family. I am just a person who loves children and my passion is child protection."

Mrs Howell formerly worked for Barnardos, which provided services for at-risk children, studied at the Institute of Child Protection Studies in Hamilton, and was brought up in a family where hitting children was not tolerated.

"I was never hit. My child was never hit. My mother came from a family of 11 and they were never hit. It's just our family culture. We don't like children being neglected, abused or not cared for."

Mrs Howell would be collecting signatures this Saturday in the Red Square from 10am and hoped to have the petitions placed in key businesses throughout the CBD.

She aimed to present the petition to Parliament.

NZ Council for Civil Liberties media spokesperson Thomas Beagle said people had rights and those rights could only be impinged if could be reasonably justified in a democratic society.

The petition was another way to punish those already jailed, he said. Mr Beagle said sterilisation was possible but intrusive and society, as a whole, would be reluctant to take up the idea.

"In that case, what is she going to achieve?"

A Human Rights Commission spokeswoman said the New Zealand Government had a duty to protect the rights of everyone in New Zealand, including convicted criminals.

However, international human rights law recognised the need to limit individual human rights in certain circumstances, such as to protect the safety of the public, she said.

Ken Evans, Sensible Sentencing Group Trust, declined to comment.

Facts about Child Abuse

* New Zealand has the fifth-worst child abuse record out of 31 OECD countries.

* On average one child is killed every five weeks.

* Most of these children are under five and the largest group is less than a year old.

* Ninety per cent of all child deaths are perpetrated by someone the child knew.

* Nearly 9000 children per year are born "at risk" (1 in every 30).

* Child abuse costs New Zealand about $2 billion each year.

* Studies have found abused and neglected children to be at least 25 per cent more likely to experience problems such as delinquency, teen pregnancy, low academic achievement, drug use and mental health problems.