Human Rights Commission urges Kiwis to help keep misogynist messages off our roads

EEO Commissioner Dr Jackie Blue hopes Kiwis will ensure an international rental van company keeps its offensive messages off New Zealand roads.

Wicked Campers Australia was recently forced to remove misogynist, offensive slogans off its vehicles after thousands of complaints.

“It says a lot about the world we live in when a company can adorn its vehicles with messages insulting 50% of the population and still be in business,” said Dr Blue.

“I urge New Zealanders to let Wicked Campers know what they can do with their misogynistic slogans: they have no place in our country.”

Dr Blue has been contacted by people unhappy with slogans on the company’s New Zealand vehicles and website.

“If you’re following one of these vans you can’t avoid reading their denigrating and derogatory slogans. You have no choice – they’re right in your face,” said Dr Blue.

“It’s not like you can put an R18 restriction on them that prevents children from reading them.”

New Zealand is a signatory to UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) which has linked attitudes that portray woman as subordinate and sexual objects as contributing to gender based violence. In its latest review of human rights in New Zealand published in February, the United Nations urged New Zealand to focus on addressing violence against women and children.

ENDS

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