Our relationship with Tonga hasn't been the only subject of inquiry for the foreign affairs, defence and trade select committee - they have also been conducting an inquiry into the role of international human rights in New Zealand foreign policy. While the inquiry is by no means complete, they have released a preliminary report [PDF] today and made several recommendations. The more concrete ones include having MFAT strengthen its human rights division and publicly report on human rights in foreign countries, in a similar manner to the US State Department. They also recommend working to promote human rights in the South Pacific region, through establishing a Pacific Islands Human Rights Charter, encouraging South Pacific nations to ratify and implement international human rights conventions, assisting with the networking of human rights NGOs in the region, and creating a human rights secretariat within the Pacific Forum. This is all sensible, achievable stuff, and hopefully the government will take these recommendations on board.
The actual report is very short, and the bulk is an appendix containing MFAT's submission to the committee. It's a good overview of the role human rights already play in our foreign policy, and it is well worth reading.
1 comments:
And its a concrete way of making a difference. Very few of our neighbours have formal human rights institutions to monitor the government's performance (Fiji being one exception), and very few have signed up to the core human rights instruments (except the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which everyone belongs to). Both are things well worth promoting.
Having pored over MFATs submission, they are very keen on not rocking the boat or upsetting anyone, but they do lay out the core issues wrt human rights and trade, human rights and aid, human rights and military cooperation etc, and have a laudable focus on effectiveness.
Posted by Idiot/Savant : 8/09/2005 10:01:00 AM
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