Source: Human Rights Commission
The Human Rights Commission is releasing new human rights and Te Tiriti O Waitangi guidance for those tasked with developing or analysing policy on COVID-19.
‘A Human Rights and Te Tiriti o Waitangi Policy Checklist for Covid-19’ is for public service agencies or non-governmental organisations to aid them in their policy work.
“Developing legislation and policies in a fast-paced and rapidly changing Covid-19 environment is challenging. Appropriately, it is a weighty responsibility. As such, we have developed a Policy checklist for COVID-19 intended to support decision and policy makers, to check their decisions and analysis against crucial human rights and Te Tiriti-based criteria,” says Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt.
The checklist is informed by international and domestic human rights and Te Tiriti sources. It is intended to be a resource to complement rather than replace, other policy tools being used to support human rights and Te Tiriti outcomes.
“Recognising there are varying levels of human rights and Te Tiriti understanding and application across the policy sector, this resource can aid your practice wherever you’re at,” says Mr Hunt.
The checklist sits within a suite of briefings we released earlier this week, under the title of ‘Human rights and Te Tiriti o Waitangi approach to Aotearoa New Zealand’s proposed Covid-19 Protection Framework’.
These Briefings available below, are a demonstration of how the Checklist principles can be applied to various COVID-19 policies and schemes. We will continue to add to this suite as required:
- Background briefing
- General conditions briefing: upholding human rights protections under Aotearoa’s proposed Covid-19 Protection Framework
- Specific conditions briefing: upholding human rights protections in the use of vaccination certificates under Aotearoa’s proposed Covid-19 Protection Framework
