Before leaving the government and politics last year, the then Justice Minister Simon Power initiated a review of the New Zealand Family Court.
Kerry Bevin, an activist and leader of the ‘Republic of New Zealand Party’ and member of the ‘Father Coalition,’ in his submission to the Family Court Review described the neglect of children’s rights and inadequate treatment of parental rights as a ‘perplexing ignorance’ and a ‘serious constitutional default.’
He said the resignation of the Justice Minister ‘suggested a lack of political will to resolve rights and constitutional difficulties.’
Mr Bevin wants to see the ‘enactment of ‘Equal Parenting in Constitutional Law as a Human Right’ and have the Family Court replaced by a Family Disputes Tribunal (submission available upon request).
The Green Paper on ‘Vulnerable children’ makes no mention of the human rights omissions and consequently seems to want to improve the treatment of children by redistributing wealth, which may simply transfer many social problems elsewhere.
A far better approach, in my view, is to include the omitted rights as the individual and collective rights to economic and social development (including holistic development) in the Bill of Rights to enable greater bottom-up progress to take place.
This ethical and more balanced approach to development would increase employment and grow the wealth and human rights of all as it has done throughout history.
Anthony Ravlich is Chairman of the Human Rights Council of New Zealand. Read related report under Homelink. Email: anthony_ravlich@yahoo.com
