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Aotearoa New Zealand's 4th UPR (2024)
New Zealand's 4th Universal Periodic Review is scheduled to take place at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on 29 April 2024.
Ahead of the review, New Zealand will submit a national report to the UN, which is due by 29 January 2024. After submission, the UN will publish this report on its website.
In April 2024, a Government delegation will travel to Geneva for the hearing. This will start with New Zealand delivering a national statement. Then other countries, will make recommendations on how New Zealand can improve its human rights situation. The United Nations will then compile a list of recommendations, and publish it on its website.
The Government will provide a formal response to the recommendations.
The Government will then decide how to implement the recommendations it has accepted.
What is the UPR?
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a five-yearly review by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva that assesses New Zealand’s progress on a broad range of human rights issues.
The New Zealand Government is committed to human rights and to working with the UN to promote and protect them. An important part of the UN human rights system is the UPR.
When Aotearoa New Zealand participates in the UPR, it provides an opportunity to tangibly demonstrate New Zealand’s strong commitment to a global rules-based system, including existing international human rights mechanisms.
Public Consultation and Human Rights Hui
Aotearoa New Zealand’s national report will include many human rights issues raised by the public through public consultation in person and online.
In March, April and May 2023 the Ministry held public consultations in Wellington, Dunedin, Christchurch, Nelson, Rotorua, Auckland, and online to hear the views of the public as we prepared New Zealand's national report.
In July 2023 we released the draft national report for public consultation. This ended on 30 July. You can still read the draft report below.
The United Nations also accepted written submissions, which were due by 11 October 2023. It will compile those submissions into a summary of stakeholders information, and release this on its website.
You can read the UN’s previous summaries for New Zealand’s past Universal Periodic Reviews here:
- 2019 Summary of stakeholders Information(external link)
- 2014 Summary of stakeholders information(external link)
- 2009 Summary of stakeholders information(external link)
Previous UPR Sessions
New Zealand’s first Universal Periodic Review was 2009, our second in 2014 and our third in 2019.
Below are reports submitted by New Zealand to the United Nations in our previous Universal Periodic Reviews.
- New Zealand Third National UPR Report as submitted to UN (2019)(external link)
- New Zealand Second National UPR Report as submitted to UN (2014)(external link)
- New Zealand First National UPR Report as submitted to UN (2009)(external link)
Likewise, below are the national statements delivered by New Zealand at the hearings.
Additionally, the following links are the report from the Working groups in our previous Universal Periodic Reviews. This includes recommendations made to the New Zealand Government.
- Report of the Working group (2019)(external link)
- Report of the Working Group (2014)(external link)
- Report of the Working Group (2009)(external link)
Lastly, you can read the matrix of recommendations here. This is a document that outlines New Zealand’s formal response to all the recommendations.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights(external link) provides other documents and links relating to our previous three reviews.
NZ Human Rights Commission
Te Kāhui Tika Tangata New Zealand Human Rights Commission provides independent support to New Zealanders to contribute to the UPR.
See the Human Rights Commission’s page on the UPR here: