Concluding Observations - hot off the press from the UN
A printed copy of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s Concluding Observations (recommendations) on New Zealand under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, 2023.
Calling all Children’s Rights Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand members and friends - today the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has published its Concluding Observations on New Zealand.
You can read the Concluding Observations here (click on the PDF symbol and the document will download).
These Concluding Observations on New Zealand are the first since 2016, and have been informed by reports given to the Committee by the Government, civil society (the Alliance, and many of our members through thematic reports and contributions to our main report!), and the Human Rights Commission and Office of the Children’s Commissioner over the past year, and informed by the State Review dialogue held with the Committee during the last week of January 2023.
On first read, the Concluding Observations set out very clear recommendations for the New Zealand Government to take further steps to respect, protect and fulfill the rights under the Children’s Convention for all children and tamariki in our country. The Committee has made recommendations under all clusters of rights under the Convention, and they are intended to be able to be practically actioned by the Government.
We will be taking time over the coming days at the Alliance to further reflect on the Concluding Observations, but what we can already say is that a lot of the input and influence provided by Alliance members and through the Alliance report and direct advocacy at the Committee review has been heard by the Committee and reflected in the recommendations. Ka nunui te mihi ki a tātou katoa ki te whakakaha ngā mana o ngā tamariki i tēnei mahi.
The Committee in its Concluding Observations is also recommending that urgent measures need to be taken by the New Zealand Government on the following areas where our country is falling well short for children and their rights:
non-discrimination
violence against children
children deprived of a family environment
children with disabilities
standard of living
children belonging to minority or indigenous groups
child justice.
These areas in need of urgent attention map very closely to the priority issues put forward to the Committee by the Alliance in our reporting and direct advocacy in Geneva, and to the reporting and advocacy provided by Alliance members through the thematic reports contributed and the pre-session with the Committee.
Our Alliance Steering Committee members Claire and Jacqui, and Executive Director Andy, will soon all be back in Aotearoa after the time away in Europe representing the Alliance, and we will let Alliance friends and members know soon about when we will be meeting to feed back on the process and discuss together the Concluding Observations. For now of course, we are keen to know your whakaaro (thoughts), so please feel free to drop a comment below once you’ve read the Concluding Observations - again, they can be read here!