New Zealand is about to be shamed by a high-profile international human rights group that says we are not doing enough to turn around our horrific record on domestic violence.
The report from New York's prestigious Leitner Centre for International Law and Justice will be presented to the government on Tuesday. But the Sunday Star-Times can reveal it identifies numerous weaknesses in our domestic violence laws and policies.
The authors, all international human rights experts, have made 27 recommendations, focusing on:
* improving the way we monitor domestic violence
* providing greater support for victims and offenders after violence happens, and
* doing more to protect Maori women in particular.
"More can and ought to be done," says lead researcher Jorge Contesse.
The Leitner Centre group picks one human rights issue to scrutinise every year. This is the first time it has turned its spotlight on a developed country previously, the centre has investigated issues such as torture and extra-judicial killings in Turkey, healthcare in Kenya, HIV/Aids in Malawi and the justice system in Mexico.
Last week Contesse pointed the finger at the New Zealand government, telling the Star-Times: "Under international law the government must do all it can to prevent domestic violence and punish such acts and if they don't do everything possible to prevent such violence occurring they are in effect responsible."
Contesse says Maori women should be triply protected by the Treaty of Waitangi, international codes for indigenous peoples' rights, and more generic international human rights conventions.
However: "Maori women are much more at risk of being assaulted or threatened by a partner... meaning, the NZ government is particularly failing Maori women in respect to domestic violence."
Offending remained "surprisingly high", despite significant efforts to reduce it in recent years.
Police statistics show a 15% increase in the number of family violence incidents and offences in 2007-08, with more than 86,000 reports made. They say family violence affects a third of all women during their lifetime and that 45% of murders in New Zealand are family violence-related.
Meanwhile, a second report calling for an overhaul of systems to keep women and girls safe is being presented alongside the New York findings. The report, by a newly-formed local group called the Roundtable of Violence Against Women, says certain types of violence and victims are being overlooked. This includes prostitutes who come from countries known for trafficking, such as Korea, Thailand, Eastern Europe and the Philippines.
It also highlights the "serial abuse" of many immigrant women, saying both Women's Refuge and the Shakti Community Council have evidence that men are using women's residency status to exploit them and keep them in abusive relationships.
Domestic violence researcher and spokesperson for the Roundtable, Ruth Herbert, says we need to do much more than run a few television campaigns to keep women safe. She hopes the Leitner report and her group's demands will "flush the government out to make a stand on what they're going to do about it... because this problem ain't going to go away. This is not something we can keep hidden the world is watching."
A spokesman for Justice Minister Simon Power said he wouldn't comment until after he had seen the report but added that the issue of domestic violence was a priority for the new government and one of the first bills the government sent to select committee was legislation to enable police to issue on-the-spot protection orders.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/2330221/NZ-slated-on-domestic-violence
Theres no doubt at all that DV figures in NZ are horrific. IMO a good start would be the mothers/wives tanding up and admitting to the damage they do, instead of blaming ALL DV on the men. Figures on DV in relation to the numbers of men affected are usually brushed under the mat.
