As the Human Rights Commissioner designated to advocate for women’s rights, I am deeply concerned and equally shocked at the harrowing allegations made by wāhine at the Auckland Women’s prison. #thread https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/431299/gassed-in-their-cells-begging-for-food-at-auckland-women-s-prison

Any women’s prison in Aotearoa must uphold mana wāhine, women’s human rights, tikanga Māori, and human rights in the treatment of all people in their care and move away from a system of punitive culture.

Prolonged use of segregation can amount to ill-treatment & is inconsistent with Mandela Rules (UN Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners). I’m very concerned by reports that prolonged segregation is used alongside pepper-spray & other physical &/or chemical restraints.

Wāhine Māori are over-represented in prisons and are one of the most imprisoned indigenous groups in the world. The government must work with Tangata Whenua to transform the way that the justice system interacts with Māori by sharing power and resources.

We cannot continue to retraumatise those who have often already experienced a life of violence before coming into contact with the justice system. We must do better to help uplift the people within our criminal justice system & ensure they can continue to live a life of dignity.

I encourage anyone who has experienced violence or a breach of their rights to contact the @NZHumanRights so we can get a sense of its extent. This will help inform the Commission’s systemic advocacy work directed at the legislation and policies that are set by the Government.

@NZHumanRights is NZ’s Central National Preventative Mechanism (NPM) under the Crimes of Torture Act. The @Ombudsman_NZ is the NPM responsible for monitoring prisons and can examine the treatment of prisoners under that mandate.

The NPM system under the Crimes of Torture Act was established to implement New Zealand’s human rights obligations under the Option Protocol to the UN Convention Against Torture.