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Waikato University law professor Valmaine Toki has been appointed to chair the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which is holding its 17th annual session this week in Geneva.
Professor Toki has been a member of the mechanism since 2022, and was previously a member of the Aotearoa Independent Monitoring Mechanism.
She has connections to Ngāti Rehua, Ngāti Wai, and Ngāpuhi.
This week’s agenda includes study and advice on constitutions, laws, legislation, policies, judicial decisions and other mechanisms through which States have taken measures to achieve the ends of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
That will include consideration of a damning report from Aotearoa that accuses the coalition Government of taking the relationship with the state and progress on Indigenous, human and climate rights back more than 40 years.
There will also be discussion on the International Decade for Indigenous Languages and on ways to enhance the participation of Indigenous peoples in the United Nations.
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