As New Zealand wakes up under Alert Level 3, PM Jacinda Ardern talks to Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking about Covid-19 checkpoints, Deborah Russell, and the wage subsidy scheme. Audio / Newstalk ZB
Rising rates of poverty, family violence and racism under the Covid-19 lockdown all need to be desperately addressed, the Human Rights Commission says.
Overall the commission said it "strongly commended" the Government's response, in a report released today, but there had been "almost total silence" when it came to human rights.
The report highlighted "significant shortcomings", including fulfilling obligations to Māori under Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and the commission called for human rights and Te Tiriti to be placed at "the heart of decision and policy making".
"The immediate stress and long-term impacts are not evenly shared: they disproportionately fall on those who were already finding it tough beforehand," chief human rights commissioner Paul Hunt said.
"Human rights and responsibilities, and respect for Te Tiriti o Waitangi, should be hallmarks of the country's recovery from the pandemic."
Major issues highlighted by the commission included a lack of access to personal protective equipment (PPE), particularly among the disabled communities and Māori healthcare providers.
This had led to the Auditor-General launching an independent review of PPE management.
There had also been an increase in racist behaviour and online hate speech since the global outbreak began in January, and family violence during the lockdown period.
Efforts to support Māori were noted in the report, including the Ministry of Health's Māori Response Action Plan, and it was "encouraging" to see partnership arrangements including with iwi and hapū-led checkpoints, carried out in a "spirit of collaboration with police, councils and civil defence".
But the commission urged the Government to "renew and reinvigorate" its commitment to Te Tiriti and to work in partnership with Māori as it devised and implemented strategies in level 3 and beyond.
This is consistent with previous health crises, including the 1918 flu epidemic when Māori died at seven times the rate of non-Māori, and even in recent times with the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic the rate was 2.6.
"Honouring Tiriti and human rights commitments is vital to ensure an effective response to Covid-19 and to prevent the erosion of trust and confidence within Crown-Māori relationships," Hunt said.
The report concluded that one of the "striking features" of the Government's response to Covid-19 was an "almost total silence about human rights".
"Human rights do not provide magic solutions to grave crises, but they have a constructive contribution to make," Hunt said.
"They embody values - the importance of partnership, participation, protection, safety, dignity, decency, fairness, freedom, equality, respect, wellbeing, community and responsibility.
"Increasingly operational, human rights can help to chart and implement an effective, equitable, balanced, sustainable medium and long-term response to Covid-19. They can help to strike fair balances and identify proportionate responses."
The report made recommendations for the Government across human rights and Te Tiriti including access to PPE; access to justice; contact tracing, surveillance and data use; deprivations of liberty; racism; disability; family violence; older people; women; employment; poverty and housing.
"If the Government explicitly takes human rights into account, this will help to ensure that it complies with its legally binding national and international human rights obligations," Hunt said.
Justice and Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister Andrew Little has been approached for comment.
Key recommendations
• Ensure human rights and Te Tiriti-based partnership across the Government's Covid-19 response.
• Improving guidance on and access to PPE for home and community support workers.
• Resourcing the Human Rights Review Tribunal to hear and decide claims remotely, which have been suspended since March.
• Appropriately balance privacy rights with the right to health when considering digital contact tracing.
• Address access issues to prisons, police cells, secure mental health and dementia units, youth justice facilities, and care and protection residences for monitoring agencies.
• Prioritise developing a National Action Plan Against Racism grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
• Involve disabled people in producing materials and information further increasing funding to protect those at risk of violence.
• Improve pandemic preparedness and planning for aged care facilities and ensuring older people are provided with the opportunity to influence those decisions.
• Increase investment in tertiary education to lift the prosperity of Māori, women, Pacific, disabled, migrant workers, ethnic minorities, marginalised youth, and older workers.
• Provide targeted investment to struggling businesses and industries, with te Tiriti, equity, and human rights built into stimulus packages and outcome planning.
• Ensure those living in homelessness and insecure housing who were housed by the government during alert level 4 are not made homeless again.
