The complaint was sent to the UN committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Photo: AFP
Prominent Māori health leader Lady Tureiti Moxon has filed a human rights complaint to the UN over "systemic discrimination" of Māori in New Zealand.
Moxon told RNZ the 42 page complaint was sent to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) on Monday.
She has requested the opportunity to meet with the five-member working group responsible for the Early Warning and Urgent Action procedure in Geneva, before or during the Committee's upcoming 116th session, scheduled from 17 November to 5 December 2025, when New Zealand is due for review.
In her submission, Moxon alleges a "significant and persistent pattern of political racial discrimination against iwi Māori" and that since late 2023 a series of government actions have reversed progress towards fulfilling New Zealand's obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
"I think that it's really time that this government, and successive governments, put the Treaty where it belongs, which is at the forefront of all their decisions that are made, that impact on Māori. And at the moment, they're basically saying, we don't have to do that, we are sovereign.
"I'm not disputing the fact that we have a sovereign government, but I am disputing the fact that they cannot be sovereign without taking into consideration Te Tiriti o Waitangi. And right now, they don't care, and they have behaved and acted as if the rights of Māori do not matter, Te Tiriti does not matter."
RNZ has approached Māori Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka for comment.
Lady Tureiti Moxon. Photo: Supplied/Sarah Sparks
Moxon said there needed to be return to a relationship based on mutual trust, mutual understanding and a positive two-way relationship that Te Tiriti promised.
She pointed to the Regulatory Standards Bill, Pae Ora Amendment Bill, the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora and the repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act as examples of government actions that have had an "enormous effect" on Māori.
CERD has only issued one other specific decision under its urgent action and early warning procedure for New Zealand in March 2005, concerning the New
Zealand Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004.
Moxon said she had tried to have her concerns heard through the Waitangi Tribunal, but the government had "disregarded" those findings, so she decided to go to the UN.
"So they've gone, in my view, to an extremist view that Māori are unworthy of having anything different from everybody else. And yet, the treatment that we have received has been less than adequate for years. And here we are, yet again, having to fight for every little morsel that we can get."
Moxon also alleged "repeated instances of unconstitutional overreach" by the government, including through the extensive use of urgency, introducing bills just before Waitangi Tribunal hearings to deprive it of jurisdiction and removing the requirement for schools to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
"Now, they talk about the betterment of all New Zealanders in actual fact, what they're referring to is the betterment of themselves not all New Zealanders, themselves."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
