By EUGENE BINGHAM political reporter
The children's commissioner could be swallowed up by an umbrella human rights organisation that would also absorb the Race Relations Office.
A Government report on the future of the human rights agencies recommends considering the long-term future of a separate office for the Children's Commissioner.
"If a decision is reached that the [new] organisation should be rights-based and/or there should be a system for considering complaints in respect of children's rights ... the case for including the office would be very strong," said the report released yesterday.
Blending the commissioner's functions into the proposed Human Rights Institution would be considered only at a "later" date.
By contrast, the future of a separate Race Relations Office became less certain yesterday when Prime Minister Helen Clark gave tacit approval to the recommendation that the office and the Human Rights Commission be amalgamated.
Associate Justice Minister Margaret Wilson called for submissions on the team's proposals.
They recommended the broader-based institution with seven to nine part-time commissioners and a full-time president. It would be charged with increasing public understanding and debate about human rights issues.
The review team concluded that existing agencies were too focused on individual cases and did not spend enough time on work such as targeted education programmes.
It suggested the institution would be less vulnerable and a more effective community leader than the 28-year-old Race Relations Office.
"The community leadership role cannot be achieved effectively within existing organisational models that are, for the most part, small and fragmented and are structured around the need to make determinations on individual complaints," said the report.
Helen Clark welcomed the report, saying it was time to review the existing structures. "We have an expert group that's said there's a better way of doing it and we're bound to give that serious consideration," she said.
Ms Wilson said amalgamation could be justified on the grounds there was a lot of overlap in human rights complaints, with many race-related cases involving other discrimination.
But Race Relations Office figures show that just 11 of the last 2750 race relations cases involved other forms of discrimination.
Race Relations Conciliator Rajen Prasad said he did not believe his office's work had been well understood by the review team.
Racial problems were more pervasive and had a special character that meant they deserved special attention. "I don't want to sound defensive of my organisation or sound like we are above any kind of review but if we are going to end this after 28 years of experience then there had better be a guarantee of something better," he said.
"Simply coming up with another structure will not make our race relations issues go away. We have a long way to go."
The report suggested the new institution would be better resourced to deal with all human rights issues, but Dr Prasad said it would be of more benefit to fund his office more adequately.
National's ethnic affairs spokeswoman Pansy Wong said disbanding the office would send a worrying signal to migrant communities.
"It could be seen as an attempt to bury the issue rather than fronting up to the challenge of fostering positive race relations," said Pansy Wong.
Act leader Richard Prebble said the Government should dump the Human Rights Commission and retain the Race Relations Office.
Children's commissioner role could be absorbed into new organisation
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