Monitoring New Zealand's Progress

New Zealand’s ratification of the Convention was followed by the establishment of an independent mechanism to promote, protect and monitor the implementation of the CRPD and periodically report to the United Nations on progress. It consists of three independent organisations working in partnership to achieve the results, the Disability Convention Coalition, the Office of the Ombudsmen and the Human Rights Commission.

Role of the independent mechanism
The role of the independent mechanism is to:
• Develop a monitoring framework including indicators of progress
• Provide the United Nations CRPD Committee with an issues paper to coincide with the Government’s periodic report on the implementation of the CRPD
• Advise the government and civil society on any legislation, policy or practice with an impact on the daily lives of disabled New Zealanders
• Inform the United Nations of progress on particular issues of interest
• Inquire into any issue that may involve an infringement of human rights.

The three partners involved in the independent mechanism are proposing to provide an annual report to Parliament.

Role and activities of the Human Rights Commission
The Human Rights Commission has been given the role of coordinating the activities of the independent mechanism.

The Commission’s Statement of Intent 2011-2014 identifies the major initiatives in the disability rights area for the current year as:
• Promote knowledge of, and use of, the CRPD by disabled people and their organisations
• Provide an issues report to the United Nations CRPD Committee identifying the main human rights issues and recommendations for government action
• Monitor and report on progress on key human rights issues including inclusive education, access to New Zealand Sign Language, accessible official information and the removal of barriers in the built environment.

The Commission’s role in attempting to resolve human rights disputes suggests that a number of issues will be crucial in the next year including the captioning of advertisements and other material associated with the general election.

To date the Commission has:
• Undertaken an extensive community engagement with disabled people to understand which human rights issues are most important to them. This will inform the Commission’s ongoing work and contribute to the issues report to the United Nations
• Produced an information brochure on the CRPD in a variety of alternative formats
• Developed a draft monitoring framework
• Undertaken research and policy development work on three access issues: accessible local and national elections, access to the built environment and accessible information. These will form the basis of a consultation document later in the year.