Launch of the Human Rights Foundation

Nga hau e wha, nga iwi e tau nei, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

This audience knows that New Zealand had a real influence on the development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights when it was drawn up over 50 years ago. Since then, the promotion and protection of human rights has continued to be among our core values in this country. That's what getting a fair go means to New Zealanders.

We know that human rights are inalienable, universal, indivisible and interdependent.
We know too that human rights express the legitimate aspirations of human beings.
We know that human rights are inextricably linked to issues of personal and collective safety, security and prosperity.
We know that human rights must be central to governmental and intergovernmental policy.
We know that human rights must be promoted by every organ of society.

While we - particularly this audience - may know all this, the challenge is to live up to the rhetoric.

International and local developments mean that while human rights values remain universal, the context in which they are to be implemented is constantly changing. Living up to the rhetoric therefore means staying abreast of social changes. It means exploring new developments and challenging the authorities when restrictions on human rights are deemed by them to be necessary in the public interest.

If we are truly to fulfil the human rights ideals, we must make sure that we have the infrastructure to ensure that our human rights values withstand the incoming challenges. Put another way, our human rights scrutiny must be systematic.

Official organisations like the Human Rights Commission and the Ombudsman are an important part of such a framework.

But we also need an active civil society, to ensure grassroots participation, to hold the watchdogs accountable, and to contribute to an broader understanding of human rights and their implementation

So I welcome the establishment of the new human rights foundation. So much so, in fact, that I have agreed to become its patron.

While there are a number of other human rights non governmental organisations doing important work (many are represented here today) there remains a gap which they do not and cannot fill. Some are constrained by being part of the government or being wholly or partly funded by government subsidy. Others, quite sensibly, restrict themselves to specific human rights issues or sectors.

There are real advantages in making practical and theoretical links across human rights issues, something that the foundation will, I am told, make a priority.

Nor is there any overlap in having both a Human Rights Commission and a non-governmental human rights foundation. Both are needed. They may even work on the same issues from time to time. But there are things that can be done by an official organisation with its access to state institutions, which are not possible for an NGO. Equally, there will be times when there are matters which it is not financially or politically possible for a state-funded body to undertake, however independent it may be.

If the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, to paraphrase John Philpot Curran, then it behoves those of us who most value human rights to maintain a close watch on the affairs of the day. I believe the Human Rights Foundation will become an important part of our national human rights infrastructure and I am delighted to be associated with its launch

Kia ora koutou katoa.