The Green Party is committed to ensuring that everyone’s human rights are upheld. We will honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi by strengthening the rights of Tāngata Whenua through a te ao Māori lens. We will safeguard the rights of future generations. We will extend our laws to cover more human rights, sign up to more international treaties, and give the courts and human rights institutions more power to uphold human rights.
Vision
Everyone’s rights are safeguarded and actively upheld so that everyone can participate equitably.
Values and Principles
Decisions relating to human rights must uphold the following values and principles:
- Honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Tino rangatiratanga must be fundamental to the human rights framework of Aotearoa New Zealand and be upheld at all levels.
- Ecological Wisdom: Equitable access to a healthy environment is a fundamental human right and essential to the rights of future generations.
- Social Responsibility: Everyone has a right to an adequate standard of living, and to take part in social, economic and cultural activities.
- Appropriate Decision-Making: Everyone must be empowered to exercise their democratic rights. Everyone has a right to live free from discrimination and groups that currently face structural marginalisation have a right to equity.
- Non-Violence: Diversity must be not only celebrated, but actively protected. Everyone must be able to live free from discrimination, fear, violence and abuse.
- International Cooperation: Aotearoa New Zealand must use our resources and voice to support the human rights of other people and nations.
Strategic Priorities
The Green Party’s strategic goals include:
“As a Party we strive to create a more connected, compassionate and equitable Aotearoa, free from structural biases that discriminate against groups and individuals.”
Actions in this policy that will help achieve this include:
- Establishing a human rights framework that enables human rights issues to be resolved appropriately and implements the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), informed by Tikanga Māori, Matike Mai, Mātauranga Māori, He Whakaputanga, and Te Tiriti o Waitangi. (1.1.3)
- Developing enduring legal frameworks that explicitly protects the rights of future generations. (2.1.3)
- Implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Christchurch Mosque Attacks regarding hate speech and hate crimes, and extending hate speech laws to cover religious or ethical belief, disability, gender (including gender identity and gender expression), sexual orientation and sex characteristics. (3.1.1)
- Extending the prohibited grounds of discrimination in the Human Rights Act to cover caste, union activity, appearance, genetic information, gender identity, gender expression, sex characteristics, and all sexual orientations, and reviewing the exceptions to the prohibitions on discrimination to ensure they do not harm or exclude marginalised groups. (3.1.2)
- Extending the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act to cover other human rights recognised in international human rights instruments, such as social, economic and cultural rights, the right to privacy, the right to self-determination and children’s rights, and ensuring that our laws and practices are consistent with them. (3.3.3)
- Making the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act supreme law and entrenching it. (3.4.3)
Connected Policies
All Green Party policies apply the concept of human rights, including upholding the rights of tangata whenua under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Our Workforce Policy upholds the rights of workers. Our Immigration Policy upholds the rights of refugees and migrants. Our Justice Policy upholds the right to justice and the rights of detainees. Our policy treats access to Housing and Health as human rights. Our Governance Policy creates robust and effective legal rights for the natural world. Our Disability Policy upholds the rights of disabled people. Other policies uphold the rights of Children, Women, the Rainbow community and Tagata Moana.