New Zealand - July 2024

New Zealand’s Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care found that nearly 1 in 3 children and adults placed under state care from 1950 to 2019 were subjected to abuse or torture. The report “detailed a litany of abuses in state and faith-based care, including rape, sterilization and electric shocks” and counted about 200,000 victims in the nation of 5.3 million. The report also found that Maori and New Zealanders with disabilities had been more vulnerable to abuse. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon apologized at a press conference on 24 July and promised an official state apology would follow on 12 November. The government promised reforms and plans to make financial redress to victims, which the report estimated would cost the state NZD 217 billion (USD 132 billion).

Sources: Reuters, Newsroom

Experts and legal academics described a July 2024 overview of the ruling coalition’s planned and implemented changes to policies affecting Maori in New Zealand as “chilling”, “dangerous”, and “the worst assault on Māori I’ve seen in my 40-year career.” To date the coalition has disestablished the Maori Health Authority, reduced Maori language use in public authorities, and revoked state support for “Section 27” background reports for offenders undergoing sentencing that were commonly used by Maori defendants. The laws and bills summarized by the Guardian newspaper covered six broad policy areas – health, treaty and language, justice, social and housing and education – that either explicitly or implicitly disproportionately impacted Maori New Zealanders. Maori account for 20 per cent of New Zealand’s population but make up 50 per cent of incarcerated people. Government representatives either declined or did not respond to the Guardian’s requests for comment.

Sources: The Guardian (1), The Guardian (2), Radio New Zealand