Submission: Ia Tangata

Ia Tangata is the Law Commission’s review of the protections in the Human Rights Act 1993 for people who are transgender, people who are non-binary and people with innate variations of sex characteristics.

We wrote:

The NZ Council for Civil Liberties’s constitution says that we “promote a vision of Aotearoa New Zealand as a democratic and pluralistic society where the rights and liberties of all people are respected.”

One of our touchstones is the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act which has the purpose of “to affirm, protect, and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms in New Zealand”.

We support the anti-discrimination provisions of the Human Rights Act as another way to ensure that people are not unfairly deprived of their rights due to their sex, race, sexual orientation, religious belief, disability, and other characteristics.

It seems clear to us that transgender and nonbinary people have and continue to experience unfairly prejudiced behaviour in New Zealand that interferes with their ability to enjoy the same rights and opportunities as others. We think that this behaviour should be unacceptable in New Zealand.

We believe that we would better protect people’s civil liberties and human rights by specifically including protection for transgender and non-binary people, and those having an innate variation of sex characteristics, in the Human Rights Act. Therefore we support amending section 21 of the Human Rights Act to make this protection clear.

However, we understand that there are subtleties in the best way to protect these rights. The Issues Paper mentions a number of these situations including the provision of intimate services, insurance, participation in gendered sports teams, and shared accommodation. We claim no expertise in these matters and will leave recommendations for those who are better informed.