Locke Keith: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Locke Keith: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3771] 
KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
: 
 On behalf of the Greens I praise the work of the Human Rights Commission under the very capable leadership of Rosslyn Noonan. I think its work is even more important today; it is well spelt out in the annual report of the Human Rights Commission. I think the commission is continuing that good work which is relevant in the sense that the Government itself has dropped the ball in this area over the last while particularly regarding international human rights. The current operations of the Human Rights Commission—in particular sending people like Joris de Bres to the United Nations World Conference against Racism and Rosslyn Noonan to the United Nations Committee Against Torture hearing on New Zealand recently—are really holding New Zealand’s end up in the international arena. 
A little while ago when the Government decided that it would not take up the seat that it had long campaigned for on the UN Human Rights Council—instead giving it to the United States—the head of the Human Rights Commission Ms Noonan expressed concern that the withdrawal of New Zealand’s candidacy would be interpreted as a lessening of New Zealand’s commitment to strengthening human rights internationally. Unfortunately not too long after that we saw Ms Noonan’s words come true when New Zealand was one of only eight nations to boycott the United Nations World Conference against Racism held in Europe. It has been quite upsetting when I have questioned the Minister of Foreign Affairs on why New Zealand was not present. It all seems to hinge on clause 63 of the declaration of the earlier World Conference against Racism Racial Discrimination Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban which talked about the Palestinian issue in very objective terms—defending Israel’s right to defend itself but also talking about the foreign occupation that Palestinians suffer in that place. I do not think that New Zealand should line up with Israel considering Israel’s human rights violations. 
It was good that the Human Rights Commission was present at the World Conference against Racism in Europe. Joris de Bres who was the Race Relations Commissioner under the Human Rights Commission even spoke on behalf of several of the non-governmental organisations of the countries that were represented at the conference. He expressed the views of the nations present to the overwhelming majority of the nations in the United Nations that—unlike the official New Zealand delegation—turned up to the conference. Joris de Bres attributed great success to the conference in terms of monitoring and providing education on human rights. Out of that World Conference against Racism there was clear support for New Zealand to sign the international Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which also came out of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s audit of New Zealand’s human rights. The Government would be well placed to agree with the direction of the Human Rights Commission that New Zealand should sign—or at least support—the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 
The Human Rights Commission submits regularly to select committees. It states quite clearly that the “three strikes and you’re out” bill is contrary to international law and it points out in its submission that life imprisonment is not used in New Zealand even for war crimes. So why should it be used in this “three strikes and you’re out” provision whereby for committing a much smaller crime than a war crime someone could be imprisoned for the rest of their days? 
It was left to the Human Rights Commission to report back fully on the success of the UN review of New Zealand’s human rights and on some of the problems that the New Zealand Government should continue working on such as the problems in the immigration and counter-terrorism legislation whereby the rights of those affected—people alleged to be terrorists or who have problems in coming to New Zealand—are not fully recognised. Problems with classified information prevent those people from fully understanding their rights. Thank you.