20 February 2012

Plan to abolish the title of Race Relations Commissioner

The Auckland Council's Ethnic Peoples Advisory Panel does not support the call to abolish the title of Race Relations Commissioner.

Despite assurances that the work of the office will continue, the Panel strongly believes that abolishing the title minimises the impact that racism and discrimination have on our multicultural nation's well being.

In addition, the removal of a named title will further marginalize and make invisible those communities most often affected by the consequences of racism and discrimination. In fact, what the Ethnic Panel advocates for is the revision of the mandate of the Race Relations Office so that complaints of racism and discrimination are more readily investigated and that the criteria for evaluating and determining complaints do not favour, the perpetrator of racist and discriminatory practices.

The Acting Chair of the Ethnic Panel, Rev. Amail Habib says that the Panel would also like to see the Office able to make binding judgements on the breaches of human rights affected by racism and discrimination.

ENDS

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