Reporting - United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
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Reporting requirements
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (the Children’s Convention) is a document that gives children and young people rights. Rights are things every child should have so that they can be the best they can be. This includes things like food, a home, safety, and getting help at school.
The Children’s Convention applies to everyone under 18 years old. It does not matter who they are, what they look like, their gender, sexual orientation, culture or religion, if they are rich or poor, what language they speak or if they have a disability.
The Government is responsible for making sure children’s rights are met.
Every five years, New Zealand reports to the United Nations about what they are doing to make sure children’s rights are met. The last time New Zealand reported to the Committee on the Rights of the Child (the Committee) was May 2015 in its fifth periodic report.
What does the Sixth Report say?
The Report is the Government’s answers to questions in the List of Issues Prior to Reporting (LOIPR) asked by the Committee. The Report is subject to a strict word limit of 21,200 words. If you are planning to read the full Report, we recommend you read the Overview Document alongside it.
Our sixth report to the United Nations was due on 15 October 2021.
The Report describes the actions the Government has taken in various areas to implement the Children’s Convention. The Draft Report looks at how the Government helps maintain children and young people’s wellbeing. It sets out the efforts of government to protect the rights of children to identity, including tamariki and rangatahi Māori. It shows all the initiatives and policies the government has been working on since 2016 to better implement the Children’s Convention.
The Committee also asked New Zealand lots of questions about a range of issues, including:
- implementation of the Children’s Convention in New Zealand
- new or amended legislation
- health
- education
- youth justice
- sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography
- updated data and statistics.
Public Consultation on the Draft Sixth Report
As part of the reporting process, the Government released a draft Report for public consultation. We heard from the public between 20 July – 31 August 2021 via emails, an online survey and in-person meetings with the Children’s Convention Monitoring Group.
Note that children and non-governmental organisations will also have a chance to comment on New Zealand’s implementation of the Children’s Convention at later stages of the reporting progress. We recommend getting in touch with the Office of the Children’s Commissioner if you would like to learn more about that process.
