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US Government – Human Rights
extracts for ACYA
NEW ZEALAND
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2006
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
March 6, 2007
JUVENILE JUSTICE
Juvenile detainees come under the jurisdiction of Child, Youth, and Family Services (CYFS) rather than the police. In October 2005, to relieve pressure on overcrowded facilities, CYFS completed a new youth justice facility, raising to 102 the number of beds available for juvenile pretrial detainees and juvenile offenders serving residential orders. As of December 20, a total of 673 juveniles spent a combined 2,036 nights in police cells during the year while waiting for a bed in a youth justice residence. Of these, 370 were later placed in a youth justice residence, 169 were released on bail, 133 were placed in the community, and one remained in a police cell.
On August 25, an adult detainee killed a 17-year-old juvenile detainee while both were being transported from court back to jail. The man who killed the juvenile pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment with an 18-year non-parole period. At year's end several investigations and projects to improve procedures for separating juvenile and adult prisoners and detainees were ongoing. Following the August killing, the Public Prisons Service instituted a requirement that prison managers complete a risk assessment for all prisoner and detainee escorts, including escorts to and from court hearings, to address the risk of possible harm by a prisoner or detainee to self or others or risk to a prisoner or detainee from others. Previously such an assessment was required only in cases involving prisoners or detainees deemed at risk for self-harm.
PROSTITUTION
Prostitution is legal. The Prostitution Reform Act sets a minimum age of 18 to work in the sex industry, gives prostitutes the same workplace protections as other industries, and provides for a licensing regime for brothels. The law also eliminates a client's defense of claiming ignorance that a person engaged in commercial sexual activity was under 18, and it extends culpability to any person who receives financial gain from such activity involving an underage person. The law prohibits sex tourism, and citizens who commit child sex offenses overseas can be prosecuted in New Zealand courts. During the year there were no reports of abuse or of the involuntary detention of women involved in prostitution, and no reports of such persons having passports held until employer bonds were repaid.
The Prostitution Reform Act also established a statutory Prostitution Law Review Committee (PLRC) to review the act within three to five years of its enactment (by June 2008), including an assessment of the act's impact on the number of persons engaged in prostitution, and the nature and adequacy of resources available to assist persons in avoiding or leaving employment in the commercial sex industry. The government also had an agreement with the United Future Party to review the act to "address problems associated with street soliciting, under age involvement and local authority control over brothel zoning." In April 2005 the PLRC
CHILD RIGHTS
Children - The law provides specific safeguards for children's rights and protection. The government demonstrated its commitment to children's rights and welfare through its well-funded systems of public education and medical care. The government provides 14 weeks of government-funded, paid parental leave to care for children born after December 2005 or adopted children under the age of six. The government extended the paid leave benefit to self-employed parents beginning July 1. The Office of the Commissioner for Children played a key role in monitoring violence and abuse against children.
EDUCATION AND PROTECTION
The law provides for compulsory, free, and universal education through age 16, and the government effectively enforced the law. As of July on average 99 percent of children ages six to 16 were enrolled in formal education. There was equal access to education for boys and girls, with nearly 75 percent of girls and 50 percent of boys enrolling in university studies. The government provided free health care to all children under age five. Child abuse continued to be of concern to the government. The government promoted information sharing between the courts and health and child protection agencies to identify children at risk of abuse. For the period July 2005 through June, there were 20,833 applications to Family Court for guardianship and parenting orders under the Guardianship Act or Care of Children Act and 7,782 applications for protection orders under the Domestic Violence Act. There were 630 prosecutions and 254 convictions involving assaults on children in the 12-month period ending June 30.
Commercial sexual exploitation of children remained a problem (see section 5, Trafficking).
SOURCE: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78785.htm
P. Shuttleworth
for ACYA Committee
9 March 2007
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