For the past year, I've been keeping an eye on the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, a UN human rights treaty intended to outlaw forced disappearance and ensure that those responsible for it can be prosecuted. One of the odd things is that, despite claiming to be a strong supporter of human rights, the New Zealand government has not signed it, and has no plans to do so. So, I've decided to do something about it: I'm petitioning Parliament requesting that
the House of Representatives urge the government to sign and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as quickly as possible.You can download the petition here. There's a simple FAQ here.
This is a rush job; I'm planning to submit the petition just after the International Day of the Disappeared at the end of the month. That doesn't leave much time, but I think I can get a non-embarrassing number of signatures on it. Obviously, you can help with this by downloading the petition, collecting some signatures, and posting it back to my Wellington mail drop. Or you could sign it when it turns up at Drinking Liberally this month (this coming Thursday in Wellington, the 27th in Auckland), or any of the other places I'm going to send it.
The aim of the petition is to highlight the government's stance and generate support and pressure for signature and ratification. Obviously, the more signatures it has, the more successful it will be. So please sign it today.
