Privatisation Of Prisons A Blow To New Zealand’s Commitment To Human Rights

The privatisation of New Zealand’s prisons makes a mockery of the New Zealand Government’s recent commitment to its international human rights obligations, says Amnesty International.

The organisation has condemned yesterday’s announcement by the Government to build the country’s first private prison.

“Just last month Justice Minister Simon Power emphasised to the United Nations the Government’s commitment to ensuring human rights were relevant in the daily lives of New Zealanders,” says Patrick Holmes, Amnesty International Aotearoa NZ’s Chief Executive Officer. “Yet this move to privatise prisons represents a total disregard for the Government’s obligation to protect the human rights of all its citizens.”

“The Government must ensure it upholds its responsibility to those in its custody – a responsibility that they cannot contract out of.”

“Privatising prisons significantly reduces the Government’s ability to ensure prisoners are afforded an appropriate standard of care and human rights are observed. Moreover, if violations of prisoners’ human rights do occur, those responsible must be held to account.”

Amnesty International’s concerns were echoed by the United Nations Human Rights Committee last month in response to NZ’s Fifth Periodic Review under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

“The decision to introduce private prisons one month after the UN HRC expressed its concerns about the possibility of private prisons seems to contradict the Government’s assurances of a genuine commitment to its international human rights obligations,” says Holmes.

“Societies are judged by the way they protect their most marginalised and vulnerable people, including prisoners. If the New Zealand Government doesn’t guarantee the human rights of all New Zealanders, including prisoners, it is undermining the very core of the justice system – the principle that the law is applicable to all people equally.”

ENDS

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