Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu
Land Claims Report for July 2019
1. Waitangi Tribunal – preparing to resume hearing
2. National Iwi Chairs Forum – attending the meeting of United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Summary
• The Tribunal has starting preparing for the hearing for our application for binding recommendations ordering the Crown to relinquish all State-Owned Enterprise and Crown Forest lands in Ngāti Kahu’s rohe.
• The work of the Independent Monitoring Mechanism of National Iwi Chairs Forum attracted a lot of attention and praise at the United Nations meeting of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples held in Geneva from 15-19 July. The Expert Mechanism held our work up as a model for other Indigenous Peoples of the world to follow. A number of Indigenous Peoples asked how we had been able to persuade the government to start drafting a National Plan of Action to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
1. Waitangi Tribunal – preparing to resume hearing
All those wanting to be heard by the Tribunal were asked to provide information about the lands they want ordered back to them, what research they have done and whether they have a report from the Tribunal. Ngāti Tara provided their information. We continue to argue that the lands be returned as directed by the hapū many years ago when we conducted a series of planning and consultation hui. As reported last month, we do not expect the hearing to take place until much later this year.
2. National Iwi Chairs Forum – attending the meeting of United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
After the government agreed to a National Plan of Action to implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Experts from the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous People visited to provide advice on how to go about drafting it. The very helpful Advice Note the Experts wrote has now been finalised and released on the Expert Mechanism’s website. The report is available at https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/IPeoples/EMRIP/Pages/Session12.aspx It contains very clear and helpful advice.
Three members of the Monitoring Mechanism, Bill Hamilton, Tracey Whare and me, along with Jess Ngātai and Hēmi Pirihi from the Human Rights Commission attended the meeting of the Expert Mechanism in Geneva, Switzerland in July. We presented our report for this year (which is available on the Ngāti Kahu website) and reported on the Experts’ visit to this country.
I was somewhat taken aback by the high level of praise we received from all the members of the Expert Mechanism during the formal presentation on the Experts’ visit and Advice Note.
They were hugely grateful to us for having set an historical precedent not only by monitoring the government each year, but also by successfully persuading the government to start drafting a National Plan of Action to implement the Declaration. When we requested that they visit to give us formal advice on how to do that, it meant they could carry out their mandate in a practical way that is relevant to the people.
In the formal presentation to a room with about 400 Indigenous Peoples’ and government representatives, the Expert Mechanism asked us to explain how we had done it, what were the key elements to its success and how could others pick it up. I explained we could not have done it without people who know the United Nations and its processes really well, the strong support of the people for what we are doing, the support of the Minister and the backing of the Human Rights Commission.
The Te Puni Kōkiri official who attended had been and continued to try to be obstructive, but we found ways around her. And we were too busy talking with other Indigenous Peoples about how to get our governments to implement the Declaration.
Professor Margaret Mutu
20 July 2019