In Substance and In Form: Understanding the Human Rights Implications of the Aotearoa New Zealand Government’s Expedited Changes to Pay Equity
Pay equity, the provision of equal pay for equal work, is a human rights issue. Pay equity claims allow women to bring a claim against their employer for increased wages...
No Animal Left Behind: Kiwi’s Call to Change New Zealand Disaster Law
New Zealand’s efforts to reform its emergency management law have highlighted a persistent gap between public sentiment and legislative action, particularly regarding the protection of animals during disasters. Despite robust...
Human Nature: Understanding the Constitutional and Indigenous Context of Granting Legal Personhood to Taranaki Mounga
Last week Taranaki Mounga (mountain) joined a growing family of natural entities given legal personhood in Aotearoa New Zealand. Te Urewera was the first natural entity in the world to...
Silencing the Indigenous Voice: How Australians Have Failed Their Own People Part II
The first part of this blog series addressed the background to the referendum and the Constitution of Australia, including how it derives from racially discriminatory beliefs which would later be...
Silencing the Indigenous Voice: How Australians Have Failed Their Own People Part I
Last week’s failed referendum affirms the deep-seated racial prejudice embedded in Australia’s public institutions, and demonstrates how this marginalisation continues to be perpetrated by the Australian populace more broadly. Following...
New Zealand bans conversion therapy and incorporates rights-based mechanism
Image description: rainbow queer pride flag Conversion therapy Conversion therapy involves psychological, spiritual, and physical practices to ‘convert’ a person’s gender identity or expression and/or sexual orientation preferably to that...
Functional as the Enemy of Fair: Seizing the Moment for Rights-Based Abortion Reform in Aotearoa
Aotearoa New Zealand is often cited (with varying degrees of romanticism) as a light of liberal progressivism. It is therefore perhaps surprising that a legal framework which criminalised abortion endured...
Implementing the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in New Zealand
In 2007, the United Nations adopted a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It affirmed that the right to self-determination is a universal right. It belongs to indigenous peoples,...
New Zealand’s Abortion Law Reform
During the 2017 New Zealand election campaign, Labour leader Jacinda Ardern pledged to decriminalise abortion if elected. This was the first time in decades abortion reform seemed to be politically...
Teitiota v New Zealand: A Step Forward in the Protection of Climate Refugees under International Human Rights Law?
On 7 January 2020, the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) issued a landmark ruling in which it recognised, for the first time, that forcibly returning a person to a place...
Waitangi Day: Rights, Sovereignty and the Politics of a National Day
New Zealand celebrated its national day this week. Unlike Canada Day which marks the anniversary of the Canadian federation, or Australia Day which marks the anniversary of the establishment of...
New Zealand Supreme Court Recognises Fiduciary Duties To Enforce Collective Indigenous Rights
Judgments were delivered by the New Zealand Supreme Court on 28 February 2017 in Wakatu v Attorney-General. The High Court and Court of Appeal decisions had relied on the notion...
