5th Periodic Report under the International Covenant for Economic Social and Cultural Rights Feedback
Article 10: Protection of family life
Read the text in the report here.
The Covenant recognises the right for the protection of the family and the protection of all children.
The report includes developments within Oranga Tamariki, progress in sexual violence legislation, and information on the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care.
Committee recommendations
The paragraph numbers below are taken from the Committee's concluding observations that you can access here.
The information in the report also relates to the United Nations Special Rapporteur's visit in 2020 and the Committee's assessment of our subsequent follow-up report. You can access these here.
13. The Committee recommends that the State party take a holistic approach in addressing violence in the family and child abuse. In particular, it recommends that the State party:
(a) Adopt a comprehensive and cross-cutting strategy to eradicate family violence and ensure effective implementation of the new law on family violence;
(b) Intensify its measures to protect all victims of domestic and gender-based violence, paying particular attention to Māori women and girls, while bearing in mind the historic grief and trauma experienced by them when developing solutions in partnership with Māori people and relevant civil society organizations;
(c) Continue to invest in addressing child abuse, while paying particular attention to children with disabilities and Māori children. To that end, the State party should ensure that the Ministry for Children is fully equipped and operational;
(d) Take steps to bring perpetrators of domestic and gender-based violence to justice and punish them adequately, if convicted, and strengthen awareness-raising campaigns and the provision of training for law enforcement officers to sensitize them to all forms of domestic violence and child abuse;
(e) Effectively investigate claims of abuse of children in State care, operationalize the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care, and ensure it is equipped with the resources necessary to discharge its duties efficiently.