Gender-based violence NZ's shame, women's rights commissioner tells UN
Tuesday, 17 July 2018
Domestic violence is New Zealand's leading human rights issue - and successive governments have failed generations of women, outgoing women's rights commissioner Jackie Blue has told the UN.
In a missive ahead of her departure from the Human Rights Commission, Blue - a former National MP and herself a survivor of domestic violence - has told a United Nations committee the country's responses to its worst and most shameful problem have been inadequate.
'It shouldn't be a political issue, this should be something all parties agree is our number one human rights issue,' Blue said, in an interview with Stuff.
'Violence against women is of such proportions in New Zealand that we will never have gender equality until we sort it.'
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In a speech delivered to the UN's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in Geneva this week, Blue outlined how decades of 'strategies' 'ministerial groups' and 'dedicated bodies' had done nothing to fix our broken system.
'I would have liked to have said today, as my term ends, that equality had been realised for New Zealand women, but this is not the case,' she told the committee. In particular, progress for women who bore the brunt of abuse - Māori and Pasifika, the disabled, and ethnic minorities - was slow and concerning, she said.
Governments on both sides have treated domestic violence like a political football, slowing progress. Data collection is haphazard, with different methods used by police, justice, health, and community providers like Women's Refuge, said Blue, who is also the equal employment opportunities commissioner.
While some data does exist, the last comprehensive study into rates was done in 2003. 'It is difficult to gauge the true extent of this issue.'
DISTORTED OUTCOMES
The UN committee grilled Green MP and Undersecretary for Justice Jan Logie for five hours in Geneva this week, asking its most pointed questions around domestic and sexual violence.
New Zealand is required to report to the CEDAW committee periodically on its progress on women's rights, with Logie speaking to the latest 2016 report.
The UN committee's vice-chair, Israel legal scholar and women's rights advocate Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, said she was particularly disturbed at women's experiences of the Family Court.
Domestic violence victims were often disparaged in custody disputes, leading to 'distorted outcomes', she said, while mandatory mediation was pointless given the existing power imbalance.
As a family court lawyer in Israel, she was aware criticisms were often directed at the system from women and men. But there could be no excuse for New Zealand's failings, she said.
'The level of disbelief, distrust and mistreatment of women, primarily women who are victims of domestic violence is truly shocking to the degree that it is fair to say that the Family Court system in New Zealand fails women and children, particularly those who are survivors of domestic violence.'
She felt Justice Minister Andrew Little's flagged review of the 2014 reforms would be too narrow, and said a wide-ranging evaluation was needed.
'WE HAVE REGRESSED'
Logie said it was the toughest workday she'd had.
'The questions they were asking showed that we had regressed when it comes to the rights of women,' she said. 'Overall it painted quite a bleak picture of where we have got to…you could see people's shock.'
Poverty, the housing crisis and domestic violence effect women disproportionately, Logie said. Around 95 per cent of solo parent beneficiaries are women, and around 70 per cent of those on Housing New Zealand waitlists.
Asked if this Government planned to start from scratch yet again, Logie said it was was committed to 'continuing and strengthening' the work of the previous National-led Government.
The Budget had seen $2 million given to establish a central agency responsible for driving change and aggregating more accurate data, and Logie hoped to see this happen by December.
The UN's recommendations for the Government are expected within a fortnight.