Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of People with Disabilities

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ACT party candidate David Seymour has recently said that New Zealand shouldn’t join the United Nations Security Council because it was ‘not a credible organisation’. This comment was made after candidates were asked if their parties would accept the Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of People with Disabilities. This would give people the right to appeal to the UN if their rights within their own countries are not being recognised.

I don’t see anything wrong with this; in fact I support it entirely. People with disabilities are still one of the most vulnerable in this country and throughout the world. We are one group whose rights are continuously trampled over and forgotten.

This protocol will give an avenue, once all others are exhausted, for people with disabilities to ensure that their rights are acknowledged in a society where they are often overlooked. This is simply a human rights issue. Labour candidate Carmel Sepuloni and Green MP Mojo Mathers say their parties are committed to signing the optional protocol. This is because these two parties understand marginalisation and how to tackle it.

Of course I have my issues with the UN. Their complacency when it comes to disciplining Israel after their gross human rights violations in Gaza and illegal stealing of land in the West Bank is not something we should be overlooking. New Zealand made ourselves known to the world in the 1980s when we took a stand against nuclear testing in the Pacific. We must continue this legacy of being the little guy who can stand alone as long as it means standing for what is right.

Seymour’s main argument was that we should not be allowing terrorist states with questionable values such as Afghanistan and Zimbabwe to tell us what to do. This is absolutely true, but I do find this statement coming from the right wing very ironic given that John Key has made it a priority to strengthen ties with Obama over the past 6 years, even though Obama is also guilty of such pretty horrific crimes himself. I don’t remember them ever speaking out against the USA.

If we’re going to take a stand against the UN on anything, it should be against issues such as this, not on whether people with disabilities should have their rights acknowledged. This shows me where the priorities of the political parties lie this election year.

14 COMMENTS

  1. I wouldn’t worry about the ACT party, they are rapidly placing themselves on the far laughing stock end of the political spectrum.
    You are better off to be concerned with National who have already allowed building owners to not have to bother with access for the disabled

  2. That malevolent glare ? What a dick . Stupid colon craig tries that same intense glare with meaning too . And he too is a dick .

    And you do know who the maggot is that squirms down inside the boil that is ACT ? roger douglas . jamie whyte is just the bald head on the pimple .
    David Seymour butts is a sycophantic little creep with a weird hand thing going on and he’ll only get votes from weird hand people .

    I agree , you don’t need to be too concerned Latifa . Good job bringing attention to their gibberish though .

  3. Act is best when it is completely ignored and all the Green/Labour/NZFirst/Internet Mana voters in Epsom vote the National candidate to vote them out.

    As someone who comes from a house of deaf parents, I will party vote Green because it gives the best representation for people with disabilities.

  4. Latifa, said’

    “Seymour has recently said that New Zealand shouldn’t join the United Nations Security Council because it was ‘not a credible organisation’.

    This comment was made after candidates were asked if their parties would accept the Optional Protocol to the Convention of the Rights of People with Disabilities.”

    “This would give people the right to appeal to the UN if their rights within their own countries are not being recognised”

    I came home with a disability that is still not recognised here, and need this to get our disability recognised in NZ. 16 yrs later.

    We are far behind other first world countries in all disabilities recognition, made worse by the current NatZ hold onto a purely monetary principal policy.
    NZ should be joining the UN Rights of People with Disabilities. it is a human right for heavens sakes.

  5. I was born disabled and feel like a 2nd class citizen of this country.
    Another level of bureaucracy is going to achieve nothing.

    There are so many things I wanted to do with my life but all people ever see is my disability so I get marginalised, can only ever get low paid income and people in general don’t want to know you.

    So here I am sitting at home with 9 hours work for the month looking ahead to a bleak future no matter what party gets in or what they represent, its all bullshit if you ask me.

  6. I don’t agree with ACT stance at all. We should be fighting for people that can not fight for themselves, not promoting a view that isolates us from the world.

    “New Zealand made ourselves known to the world in the 1980s when we took a stand against nuclear testing in the Pacific”. Before 1984, New Zealand was in an age of protectionism by implementing The ANZUS treaty which was a defence agreement signed in 1951 by Australia, New Zealand, and the “United States making it clear that an attack on any of the three signatory countries would be considered an attack upon all” (Columbia University, 2007). However post 1984 our anti-nuclear stance, we as a country made political and economic choices which severed out relationship traditional allies such as the United States and Great Britain.

    During this growth period however New Zealand’s, self-worth increased no longer did we feel defined as part of the British Empire, but defined our as New Zealanders. This newly acquired taste of freedom encouraged a new generation of New Zealand to act; resulting as the rise of the Maori Activism, feminism, equal rights. Equal rights for all not just the able-bodied. Yes we stood alone where it counted, standing against oppression. But this issue we a fighting for her is not our stance on terrorism or another country telling us what to do. It is fighting for human rights so why shouldn’t we get on board with the United Nations. I say let’s move forward be comfortable in our own identity to get help with resources to get this issue sorted. ACT appears to want us to move backward.

    I think providing more avenues will be very beneficial to New Zealand’s fight for equal rights. For example, in a report conducted by the Human Rights Commission (HRC) it highlights a spike in complaints in 2007. The HRC stated “The number of complaints and enquiries received on an annual basis showed a general trend downwards from 2003 to 2006 after a high of 52 in 2002. However, this trend has been reversed in the last two years, with the number of complaints and enquiries sharply rising in 2007 and 2008” (Human Rights Commision, 2009). From the research I have conducted this is the latest report on this subject. Of those reports the HRC stated that 60% of those complaints involved schools refusing to enrol students with special needs, or suspending them from school activities due to behaviour caused by their disability. So if the parents of these children exhausted these avenues they should have the right to take it to the United Nation if they so choose. We should not be limiting them just because ACT doesn’t like the United Nations view on Israel

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