Ministry Statements & Speeches:
NZ Statement delivered by Jillian Dempster, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Geneva, 27 January 2020
Madam President
New Zealand highlights the importance of protecting the rights of the indigenous Sami people of Sweden, and makes the following recommendations:
- We recommend that the Government strengthen its efforts to reflect the distinct status of the Sami as indigenous people in legislation regarding land and resources.
- We recommend that Sweden take further steps to promote and strengthen the indigenous Sami languages, including by ensuring the Nordic resource centre to promote Sami languages [the Giellagáldu project] has adequate resources to fulfil its mandate.
New Zealand recommends that Sweden continue its efforts to combat gender-based violence, including by adopting the recommendation of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to improve efforts to [identify and] eliminate barriers preventing women from reporting violence.
New Zealand welcomes Sweden’s recent announcement that it will establish an independent National Human Rights Institution and recommends that this be established as a priority in accordance with the Paris Principles.
Thank you.