January 23, 2019
UN talk needs change back home
The president of the Māori Women’s Welfare League, Prue Kapua, says government needs to learn how to step back and give the community the resources to address issues like justice and health.
Justice Minister Andrew Little has told a United Nations committee this country is failing its women, and its justice system is broken with one of the highest incarceration rates in the world.
New Zealand is undergoing its third Universal Periodic Review before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, and the league was among a large number of stakeholder groups which made submissions.
Ms Kapua says it’s important Mr Little acknowledges the government has got things wrong on issues like domestic violence.
"Until the government stops thinking that it did get it right and we're just going to tweak around, until they actually move back, give away some of that power and decision making to bodies and organisations that have a much better idea of how to engage with our own, of how to make people comfortable. You are never going to get information out of people if they wonder what your other agenda is," she says.
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