Ministry Statements & Speeches:
Madam President,
New Zealand welcomes the participation of Kenya today and wishes to make the following remarks and recommendations.
Firstly, we would like to commend Kenya for becoming the first country in Africa to collect data in its national population census on intersex people.
Secondly, New Zealand would like to recognise the positive measures Kenya has taken to end gender-based violence and harmful practices, including recent legislative frameworks and a pledge to end female genital mutilation, as well as its commitment to reducing maternal deaths. We recommend that Kenya actively implements these measures in order to eliminate discrimination and violence against women and girls.
New Zealand remains concerned by reports of discrimination, violence and threats of prosecution experienced by the LGBTQIA community in Kenya. We recommend that Kenya decriminalises consensual same-sex relationships between adults, and enact comprehensive anti-discrimination laws to safeguard the realisation of human rights for all individuals, irrespective of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
[Finally, New Zealand recommends that Kenya formalises its moratorium on executions, and ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.]
Thank you Madam President.