Burton Mark: Crimes of Torture Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Burton Mark: Crimes of Torture Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:635;Page:6265] 
Hon MARK BURTON (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 I move  
That the Crimes of Torture Amendment Bill be now read a second time 
. This bill has been closely examined by the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee. I start by sincerely congratulating the committee on its very careful consideration of both the bill and the detailed public submissions on it. I inform the House that the committee’s amendments are supported by the Government and I genuinely believe they will enhance the effectiveness of the legislation. 
 The committee received submissions from a number of human rights non-governmental organisations and practitioners Crown entities with a human rights focus and a range of other community groups. These submissions represented a range of views about the domestic implementation of international treaties and measures to prevent torture and ill-treatment in places of detention in New Zealand. I was pleased to note that all of the submissions supported this Government’s initiative to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. To have unanimous support in submissions for anything is relatively unusual in this jurisdiction. 
This is a significant bill for New Zealand as it will enable this country to comply with its obligations under the optional protocol. I am pleased to let the House know that the optional protocol entered into force on 22 June this year after gaining the requisite number of ratifications. The optional protocol is the culmination of over two decades of work by the United Nations and others and it establishes a unique monitoring system for preventing torture and ill-treatment in places of detention. 
The bill enables New Zealand to comply with the optional protocol. Upon the enactment of the protocol New Zealand will be in a position to ratify it. The bill is another illustration of this Government’s leadership in international human rights and affirms New Zealand as a country that is committed to ensuring that the worst human rights abuses are prevented wherever they are found around the world. 
The optional protocol provides for a two-tiered approach to the prevention of torture and the bill gives effect to that approach. The first tier is the international visiting body—a subcommittee of the United Nations Committee against Torture. The bill enables the subcommittee to visit places of detention in New Zealand and exercise its powers and functions as set out in the optional protocol. The second tier consists of a system of regular visits undertaken by national bodies to places of detention. Those bodies are called national preventive mechanisms. New Zealand already has the requisite independent visiting bodies such as the Ombudsman and the Police Complaints Authority. Those existing bodies enable compliance with the optional protocol in a cost-effective manner. The nominated institutions have been identified because they already possess the capability to inspect and monitor the treatment of persons detained in New Zealand. 
I now turn to the committee’s recommended amendments. As noted earlier the Government supports all of the committee’s recommendations. As I said I am confident that the amendments will improve the operation and functionality of the legislation. The amendments generally serve to clarify the provisions in the bill as introduced and some of them are of a technical nature. There are also some amendments of substance that I will briefly address. 
The committee has recommended that the bill make it clear that domestic institutions appointed as national preventive mechanisms carry out existing powers and functions when acting under this bill. This will ensure that these institutions enjoy the full array of their powers when acting to prevent torture under the bill. The committee has also recommended that a new clause be inserted into the bill that provides national preventive mechanisms with the same protections privileges and immunities that they enjoy in relation to the exercise of their powers and functions under other legislation. This is an important amendment because it will ensure in accordance with the optional protocol that national preventive mechanisms are able to exercise their powers in a fearless manner to prevent torture. 
An improvement to the reporting requirements of the national preventive mechanisms has also been proposed by the committee. The amendment requires national preventive mechanisms that are officers of Parliament to report directly to the House of Representatives instead of to the responsible Minister. This change of course preserves the constitutional status of officers of Parliament such as the Ombudsman. I think this move is highly desirable. 
The committee has further recommended that other national preventive mechanisms continue to report to the responsible Minister but it has added a requirement that the Minister must present a copy of that report to the House of Representatives. This amendment will I believe ensure dialogue between the national preventive mechanisms the executive and Parliament and will result in greater accountability throughout the reporting process whilst maintaining consistency with the existing reporting requirements. This amendment is a significant improvement to the arrangements as proposed in the original bill. 
The committee has recommended that the confidentiality provisions in the bill be amended to expressly provide that information about an identifiable individual cannot be disclosed without that person’s express consent. I commend this change because it will ensure that appropriate protection is provided to personal information. Again that is desirable. 
In conclusion I again thank all of the members of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee for making valuable contributions that have resulted in useful improvements to this bill. This process is a good example of the value of constructive select committee engagement. As I reach the end of my remarks I again thank all the people who took the time and effort to make submissions to the committee. I think they too contributed to the improvement of this bill. 
The bill is an illustration of New Zealand’s strong and ongoing commitment to the protection and promotion of international human rights. This bill provides an example to all countries of how to ensure compliance with the optional protocol with the goal of preventing torture. I commend the Crimes of Torture Amendment Bill to the House.