Human Rights Commission gives NZ mixed report card on indigenous rights at United Nations

Waimihia Maniapoto-Love addressing the UN about New Zealand's commitments to indigenous rights. Photo / Human Rights Commission

By RNZ

The Human Rights Commission has filed a mixed report card to the United Nations on New Zealand’s commitment to indigenous rights.

Addressing a UN expert group in Geneva the commission’s Kaitahutahu Rangatahi, Waimihia Maniapoto-Love said there have been periods of good progress towards tino rangatiratanga alongside periods of inactivity.

The Government, the National Iwi Chairs Forum and the commission jointly set about developing a national action plan to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People - or UNDRIP, in 2019.

“The partnership process was commendable, and considerable efforts were made to try to ensure that it operated collaboratively and equitably,” Maniapoto-Love said.

However, that action plan has been effectively shelved for now after the government postponed its completion.

The commission invited a UN expert group to revisit Aotearoa for the first time since 2019.

Maniapoto-Love said international oversight will pressure the Government to resume its work on the draft plan.

“We believe there is continued value in external, international oversight, to pressure New Zealand to maintain its work on implementing the declaration.”

The commission also highlighted to the UN its concerns over the actions of Parliament in December last year, when it passed legislation to remove Wairarapa Moana Incorporation’s rights to seek the return of their lands, territories, and resources.

The commission’s Rongomau Taketake Claire Charters said this occurred without Wairarapa Moana’s consent, and despite its right to seek a return confirmed by the Waitangi Tribunal and Supreme Court.

“Such action contravenes our nation’s founding constitutional agreement, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, fundamental human rights, and Indigenous Peoples’ rights under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“It highlights the human rights breaches that can occur when human rights are not included in higher law that can bind the legislature,” she said.

The commission also used its appearance in Geneva to echo calls by the National Iwi Chairs Forum for states to formally repudiate the doctrine of discovery.

Premised on theories of Christian-European supremacy, this doctrine provided that upon arriving in new territories, European nations automatically acquired sovereignty over the Indigenous Peoples and legal rights to their lands.

In Aotearoa, the Crown proclaimed its sovereignty using a combination of direct references to this doctrine, as well as an alleged cession of sovereignty by Māori under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Charters said that until the doctrine is formally repudiated, and Aotearoa’s constitution is transformed to give meaningful effect and protection to Te Tiriti and Indigenous rights, a breach of its obligations to recognise and protect Māori self-determination will remain.

- RNZ