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Download AudioA child rights advocate says while all children deserve fundamental rights – Māori and Pacifika tamariki continue to lag well behind other New Zealanders.
Save the Children New Zealand research director Jacqui Southey is part of a non-governmental delegation in Geneva, Switzerland – where the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, is reviewing New Zealand’s progress on children’s rights.
She says New Zealand ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 30 years ago, and while progress has been made, the figures for Maori and Pacifica are still not acceptable.
“All children have the same rights, but not all children access them or enjoy them equally. So if children are living in poverty, if children are experiencing hardships, if they have poor health, if they are unable live in affordable, and warm and healthy homes, already they are struggling. And those are the foundations of life,” Ms Southey says.
The Child Poverty Reduction Act 2018 and increased funding by the current Government are starting to make a difference … but we can’t afford to relax.
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