Media release: Ex-Prime Minister Helen Clark not worthy of UN job
From: the Justice NOW! Collective
Date: 25 February 2009

“The UN should reject Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand, for the position as head of the UN Development programme. She is responsible for a wide variety of human rights violations and should not be appointed” said Justice NOW! Spokeswoman Sally Darity.

Clark is in New York this week for a job interview with the United Nations.

“Helen Clark’s government has been condemned by several UN offices for violating the human rights of the people of New Zealand. In her time as Prime Minister, she pushed through the 2005 Foreshore and Seabed Act, regarded by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples Professor Stavenhagen as a discriminatory law and a breach of the human rights of Maori which should be repealed.”

“In 2007, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted at the UN General Assembly by a vote of 143 in favour, 4 against, and 11 abstentions. NZ was one of the four states which voted against the adoption of the Declaration - Australia, Canada and the US were the others. Now, even Australia has agreed to pass the UN Declaration, leaving New Zealand sitting with just two other pariah states in not recognising this widely supported declaration.”

“In 2007, Clark authorised the nation-wide ‘terror raids’ in which hundreds of people in the Ruatoki Valley had their human rights violated by armed police. During these raids, the entire community was locked down while people were summarily searched and photographed by police, and children were locked in sheds with no food or care. The UN is now investigating the New Zealand government in relation to these raids.”

“Further from home, Clark’s government assisted in the bombing of Afghanistan, the occupation of Iraq, and the invasions of the Solomon Islands and Tonga. Her government has happily supported the military junta in Burma by refusing to acquiesce to a request by the pro-democracy movement there to boycott the country.”

“The UN Secretary-General should take a close look at Helen Clark’s record. Frankly, Helen Clark’s government was responsible for reprehensible violations of human rights, the results of which are still being felt. She should be held accountable for her record of human rights violations, not rewarded with a top job at the UN.”

ENDS

The Justice NOW! Collective is a Wellington, New Zealand based grassroots campaign focused on education and action in relation to the state terror raids of October 15th 2007. For more information, please visit www.October15thSolidarity.info

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