Human Wrongs Watch
A United Nations human rights panel has voiced concerns about issues related to the deprivation of liberty in New Zealand, including the “disproportionate incarceration rates” of the Māori population, despite legal safeguards against arbitrary detention. The members of indigenous group make up for more than 50 per cent of the prison population while they comprise some 15 per cent of the country’s population, the UN reported on 8 April 2014.*
Māoris singing and chanting at UN Headquarters in 2009. Photo: UNDP
Speaking in Auckland on 7 April 2014 at the end of their first official visit to the country, members of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention noted that, overall, legislation and policy concerning deprivation of liberty in New Zealand is well-developed and generally consistent with international human rights law and standards.
At the same time, they urged the authorities to address a number of concerns. “If a prisoner has fully served the sentence imposed at the time of conviction, equivalent detention cannot be imposed under the label of civil preventive detention,” said expert Mads Andenas, who currently heads the Working Group.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 