Some recommendations from the UN Human Rights Council

New Zealand has just had its human rights records reviewed by the UN Human Rights Council. This august body includes the governments of Algeria, China, Congo, Cuba, Ethiopia, Gabon, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Libya, Maldives, Morocco, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

So what are some of the things they recommend for New Zealand:

• Continue its reflections and work with a view to having a written Constitution (Benin)
• Incorporate economic and social rights in its Human Rights charter (Togo)
• Continue to address all forms of political, economic and social discrimination against the Māori and Pacific population by meeting their various demands for constitutional and legal reforms and recognition (Somalia)
• Increase its official development aid to reach the international norm of 0.7 per cent of GDP (Tunisia)
• Expedite the development of a new Māori language strategy (Bangladesh)
• Implement effective measures to achieve the aim of increasing the participation of women in governance to 45 per cent in the public sector and over ten per cent in the private sector by 2014 (Australia);
• Consider relinquishing the use of electric taser weapons by the police (Namibia)
• Establish appropriate national strategies with the aim to identify and address structural discrimination in the justice system (Iran (Islamic Republic of))

Wonderfully helpful. They’ve written the Green Party manifesto for them!