Posie Parker’s NZ visit: She’s entitled to share her views within limits - Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt

OPINION

I attended the Wellington pro-trans rally because I wanted to demonstrate support for trans friends, colleagues, and communities.

For generations, trans people have been ignored, silenced, harassed, abused, and denied their human rights. Criticisms and attacks trigger their deep sense of vulnerability and anger.

Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s brief visit to Aotearoa New Zealand generated complex human rights issues. I want to provide a human rights perspective on them from where I sit with my multiple privileges and advantages. Human rights are nuanced, and this is not always understood.

Illustration / Rod Emmerson

In my opinion, it’s possible - and crucial - to support both trans and cisgendered women.

The right to freedom of expression is a vital pillar of our democracy. We should keep in mind the late Moana Jackson’s remark, “No one’s exercise of free speech should make another feel less free.”

Neither should we forget the link between transphobia and colonisation. In response to last weekend’s events, Tina Ngata reminded us, “Transphobia was brought here on a boat.”

Keen-Minshull said she was advocating for women’s rights, but that got lost because she advocates for the removal of the rights of trans people. Her words make others feel less free.

Some say that free speech is the best antidote to harmful speech. There is some truth to that, but it is also overly simplistic. It always reminds me of the old quip, “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under the bridge, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”

Sure, everyone, rich and poor, has free speech. But let’s not kid ourselves, free speech tends to favour the privileged with their resources, networks, loud voices, confidence, and friends in high places.

So, the antidote of free speech sometimes works, but sometimes it doesn’t.

Wellington's Civic Square packed with people demonstrating for transgender rights. Photo / Vita Molyneux

With human rights come responsibilities to others. Some rights compete with other rights and, in these cases, fair balances have to be struck between them. Freedom of speech, for example, has to be balanced with the right to live in peace and safety, free from discrimination. Also, many human rights are subject to justified limitations, including under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.

So, when someone shouts, “I know my rights!”, I’m thinking, “Are you sure?”

In Auckland and Wellington, we saw thousands of people rejecting Keen-Minshull’s falsehood that trans people are a danger to women.

It was a hopeful show of leadership by, and solidarity with, the trans community who have been the subject of abhorrent online and offline targeting in recent years. It’s appalling that trans people have to defend their right to exist.

At Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission, we affirm that trans rights are human rights. These rights are grounded in international covenants, conventions, and declarations, and reinforced by the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and Human Rights Act. By affirming trans rights, we are doing the job given to us by Parliament.

As much as we may disagree with her, Keen-Minshull is entitled to share her views, without being assaulted, intimidated, or shouted down. We all have human rights responsibilities.

Given trans people’s historic persecution, and as they grow in strength and confidence, it is unrealistic to expect them to stand aside and do and say nothing. The state had a human rights responsibility to make arrangements for Keen-Minshull to speak without being assaulted, intimidated or shouted down. That did not happen.

Paul Hunt.

Importantly, the intimidation was not confined to one side. Many rainbow people also felt scared before the rallies, and some were threatened after the Auckland rally. In everyday life, rainbow people disproportionately experience harassment, violence, and discrimination.

The way forward is to foster understanding between communities and not undermine their human rights.

That’s difficult in today’s online world, where outrage sells.

The human rights mission is dignity for all. Here in Aotearoa, this mission is strengthened by tangata whenua values, including manaakitanga, respect, generosity, and care for others.

Takatāpui and diverse-gendered Pacific people must also be given agency to contribute leadership. Otherwise, their perspectives will be lost and the communities they come from will be left behind.

As an inclusive democracy grounded on te Tiriti o Waitangi, New Zealand is well positioned to realise the human rights and responsibilities of everyone, including women and our rainbow communities.

- Paul Hunt is Te Amokapua Chief Human Rights Commissioner.