SQ Transp 2048

Margaret Wilson & Judy McGregor - Emerging fault lines in Democracy - AKL

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Professors Margaret Wilson and Judy McGregor, along with Silvia Bell, have astutely drawn our attention to emerging fault lines in our response to human rights and thereby our confidence in the democratic institutions that enabled them to take hold as key elements of our social community. Do we have sufficient qualities in our democratic community to keep the rights we have won, to fully protect those we have in place and extend rights to where we need to go?

In their 2016 book Human Rights in New Zealand they quote Dame Silvia Cartwright saying:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted while the world remained deeply shocked by the atrocities committed during the Second World War, was an inspirational creation… It is hard to conceive of this document being adopted today. Like most other nations, New Zealand has succumbed to a kind of world-weary acceptance that full enjoyment of universal human rights remains a distant dream. Preface, Dame Silvia Cartwright, PCNZM, DBE, QSO

The book and the report that preceded it, both published with the assistant of the New Zealand Law Foundation was based on four years of research. They concluded, significant fault lines are emerging in the human rights landscape and then set out an agenda for change with recommendations for practical action.

See the initial report Fault lines in our Human Rights Reputation here and the book Human Rights in New Zealand; Emerging Faultlines, to be available for purchase from UBS, published by Bridget Williams Books, here.

Professor Margaret Wilson taught at Auckland Law School until 1990 and was the founding Dean of Waikato Law School from 1990 to 1994. She had a high profile in New Zealand politics; from 1984 to 1987 as President of New Zealand Labour Party, 1989 to 1990 Chief Adviser and Head of Prime Minister’s Office. In 1999, she was elected a List Member of Parliament and a Minister of the Crown with positions including Attorney-General, Labour, Treaty Negotiations, Commerce, Courts and Associate Minister of Justice to 2005. From then until she left Parliament in 2008 she was The Speaker. She returned to Faculty of Law Te Piringa, as a Professor in 2009.

Professor Judy McGregor, Head of the School of Social Sciences and Public Policy at AUT, was EEO Commissioner with the New Zealand Human Rights between 2002-2012. During that time she held a national inquiry into employment in the aged care sector. The Caring Counts report was the catalyst for union-led litigation which has resulted in a S2 billion settlement to increase the wages of 55,000 workers in aged care and disability and home support. A former newspaper editor and trained lawyer, Judy has just published a co-edited international collection on human dignity. She has held fellowships at Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities and was last year the NZ-UK Link Visiting Professor at the University of London.

When
June 7th, 2017 from  6:30 PM to  8:00 PM
Location
1 McDonald Street
Auckland Polish Society
Morningside
Auckland, AUK 1025
New Zealand