Seven international human rights treaties that New Zealand has signed up to bring obligations to monitor and report regularly on how well domestic law is recognising those rights. Several government agencies are tasked with reporting, implementation and follow-up (RIF) obligations under these treaties.
The International Human Rights Guidelines set out the steps government agencies should follow to meet their RIF obligations under these core treaties.
The Guidelines are designed to assist all agencies involved in international human rights processes and help with a consistent and coordinated approach to human rights monitoring and reporting. This will ultimately help to fully realise the value of these processes and strengthen human rights in New Zealand.
While some parts of the Guidelines will be more relevant for the lead agencies for individual human rights treaties and reports, most agencies will be involved in RIF processes in some form, as a subject-matter agencies. These Guidelines will be updated as needed.
The Guidelines consist of four sections, covering an overview and each key area of the RIF process.
The sections of the Guidelines are also available in PDF format: