National Iwi Chairs Forum calls on UN to scrutinise ‘threats to indigenous rights’ in New Zealand

Tuesday, 18 February 2025

Submitters ranged from former ministers of the Crown, to social sector leaders, lawyers and a lifetime Black Power member. Jenna Lynch reports.

The National Iwi Chairs Forum is calling on the United Nations to scrutinise the Treaty Principles Bill and the Regulatory Standards Bill.

The group has made a formal submission to the UN’s Human Rights Committee, saying that if enacted, the bills would undermine indigenous rights in New Zealand.

The Forum will attend a meeting of the Committee in Geneva in March.

The National Iwi Chairs Forum is urging the United Nations to scrutinise what it calls “legislative developments in New Zealand that pose a significant threat to indigenous rights”.

The Forum has made a formal submission to the UN’s Human Rights Committee over its concerns about the Treaty Principles Bill and the Regulatory Standards Bill.

They said that if enacted, these bills will “radically undermine existing human rights protections, indigenous rights, and constitutional safeguards” in New Zealand.

In a statement, forum spokesperson Tina Ngata said the two bills would “seriously compromise” New Zealand’s status as a country held in high regard for its human rights.

The Forum is worried about the impact on indigenous rights in New Zealand if the Bills became law.

“It’s important that the New Zealand Government is held to account not only under Indigenous rights standards but under human, civil and political rights standards,” Ngata said.

Previously, various UN bodies, as well as the Human Rights Council, had recommended that New Zealand needed to strengthen its commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi within its constitution.

In its submission to the UN committee, the forum said the Treaty Principles Bill sought to replace well-established jurisprudence and legal interpretations of Te Tiriti with a set of principles rooted in individual property ownership, disregarding the Crown’s obligations to Māori and weakening Indigenous rights protections.

Tina Ngata will represent the National Iwi Chairs Forum in Geneva.

On top of that, the Regulatory Standards Bill would enable a framework that prioritises private property rights over human, indigenous, environmental, and social values, and therefore diminish the status of the Treaty, the submission said.

The forum said the two legislative measures would perpetuate systemic discrimination against Māori and violate principles of equality and non-discrimination enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The ICCPR aims to ensure the protection of civil and political rights, including freedom from discrimination, and the right to equality between men and women.

The UN’s Human Rights Committee is a body of 18 independent experts that monitors the implementation of the ICCPR by its state parties.

All state parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the committee on how civil and political rights are being implemented in their country.

Ngata will represent the forum in Geneva in March at a meeting of the Human Rights Committee where she intends to raise their concerns about the two bills.

The National Iwi Chairs Forum was founded in 2005 and is made up of the chairpersons of 71 iwi groups in New Zealand.