CEDAW/C/NZL/CO/7
and will probably continue to have a negative impact on women’s access to justice,
especially as 65 per cent of legal aid users in the State party are women. The Committee is
also concerned that migrant women lack access to appropriate legal services because of
cultural, financial and linguistic barriers, and that the proportion of Māori women
prosecuted and convicted for crimes as well as among victims of crime is disproportionally
high. Furthermore, while the Committee welcomes the role of the Human Rights
Commission in providing a mechanism to hear discrimination complaints, it is concerned
that the information on this complaints mechanism has not been sufficiently disseminated
and that the Human Rights Commission lacks sufficient resources.
15.
The Committee urges the State party:
(a) To facilitate women’s access to justice, including by providing free
legal aid to women without sufficient means and to increase efforts to make
sure that migrant women and Māori women are not discriminated against in
the administration of justice;
(b) To implement systematic training to the legal profession and
non-governmental organizations on the application of legislation prohibiting
discrimination, including in the area of access to justice, in the light of its
obligations under the Convention and its Optional Protocol;
(c)
To enhance awareness-raising initiatives for women on how to utilize
available legal remedies against discrimination, including with regard to the Human
Rights Commission, and to ensure that the Commission is adequately resourced.
National machinery for the advancement of women
16.
The Committee is concerned that the State party has not taken sufficient measures to
ensure that gender is mainstreamed into all national plans and government institutions as
requested by the Committee in its previous concluding observations
(CEDAW/C/NZL/CO/6, para. 15). In this context, the Committee notes with concern that
the State party has not introduced a new national plan of action for women to replace the
one which ended in 2009 and that the Ministry of Women’s Affairs lacks adequate
resources for its many tasks.
17.
The Committee encourages the State party:
(a)
To mainstream gender in all national plans and government institutions;
(b)
To strengthen the existing national machinery by providing adequate
authority, visibility and human and financial resources at all levels and enhancing
coordination among existing mechanisms for the advancement of women and the
promotion of gender equality by increasing the resources for the Ministry of Women’s
Affairs;
(c)
To conduct a comprehensive study on how to improve the situation of
women in the State party and develop a national action plan for women accordingly.
Temporary special measures
18.
The Committee notes the State party’s indicators for change to monitor progress on
women’s rights in three priority areas, namely, economic development, women in
leadership and violence against women. It is concerned, however, that the targets and
indicators set are not sufficient to ensure meaningful realization of women’s progress. In
this regard, the Committee is concerned that the State party has declared that the use of
temporary special measures is not an adequate tool to effectively accelerate the realization
of substantive equality between men and women although the legislation allows for their
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