Human Rights in New Zealand

So much has happened around the world to affect the lives of everyday people and in this case, how COVID-19 impacted on New Zealanders (NZ).  And in a wider context globally how it impacted on people's right to choose whether or not to have a COVID-19 injection.

The devastation COVID-19 had on NZ society in terms of job losses and mental health problems cannot be underestimated, especially regarding brutal mandates and unsympathetic coercion to vaccinate an often unwilling public. And this is why in 2022 we salute those who stood by The Human Rights Act (NZ) The Human Rights Act | New Zealand Ministry of Justice

The Human Rights Act 1993 is aimed at giving all people equal opportunities and preventing unfair treatment based on irrelevant personal characteristics.

The Human Rights Act covers discrimination on the grounds of:

  • sex
  • marital status
  • religious belief
  • ethical belief
  • colour
  • race
  • ethnic or national origins
  • disability
  • age
  • political opinion
  • employment status
  • family status
  • sexual orientation.

It's unlawful to discriminate against someone on these grounds in the following areas of public life:

  • employment
  • education
  • access to public places
  • provision of goods and services
  • housing and accommodation.

People who think they have been discriminated against can complain to the NZ  Human Rights Commission.

Human Rights Commission website(external link)This page was last updated: 11th March 2020

NZ Human Right s are based on the Nuremberg Code established after the atrocities committed during WW2

BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL No 7070 Volume 313: Page 1448,
7 December 1996.

CIRP Introduction

The judgment by the war crimes tribunal at Nuremberg laid down 10 standards to which physicians must conform when carrying out experiments on human subjects in a new code that is now accepted worldwide.

This judgment established a new standard of ethical medical behavior for the post World War II human rights era. Amongst other requirements, this document enunciates the requirement of voluntary informed consent of the human subject. The principle of voluntary informed consent protects the right of the individual to control his own body.

This code also recognizes that the risk must be weighed against the expected benefit, and that unnecessary pain and suffering must be avoided.

This code recognizes that doctors should avoid actions that injure human patients.

The principles established by this code for medical practice now have been extended into general codes of medical ethics.

 

Human Rights violations are covered by the Nuremberg Code of Ethics.

The Nuremberg Code (1947)

Permissible Medical Experiments

The great weight of the evidence before us to effect that certain types of medical experiments on human beings, when kept within reasonably well-defined bounds, conform to the ethics of the medical profession generally. The protagonists of the practice of human experimentation justify their views on the basis that such experiments yield results for the good of society that are unprocurable by other methods or means of study. All agree, however, that certain basic principles must be observed in order to satisfy moral, ethical and legal concepts:

 

1.The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element requires that before the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject there should be made known to him the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonably to be expected; and the effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his participation in the experiment.

The duty and responsibility for ascertaining the quality of the consent rests upon each individual who initiates, directs, or engages in the experiment. It is a personal duty and responsibility which may not be delegated to another with impunity.

2.The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful results for the good of society, unprocurable by other methods or means of study, and not random and unnecessary in nature.

3. The experiment should be so designed and based on the results of animal experimentation and a knowledge of the natural history of the disease or other problem under study that the anticipated results justify the performance of the experiment.

4. The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury.

5.No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects.

6.The degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment.

7.Proper preparations should be made and adequate facilities provided to protect the experimental subject against even remote possibilities of injury, disability or death.

8. The experiment should be conducted only by scientifically qualified persons. The highest degree of skill and care should be required through all stages of the experiment of those who conduct or engage in the experiment.

9. During the course of the experiment the human subject should be at liberty to bring the experiment to an end if he has reached the physical or mental state where continuation of the experiment seems to him to be impossible.

10. During the course of the experiment the scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the experiment at any stage, if he has probable cause to believe, in the exercise of the good faith, superior skill and careful judgment required of him, that a continuation of the experiment is likely to result in injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject.

For more information see Nuremberg Doctor's Trial, BMJ 1996;313(7070):1445-75.

The Nuremberg Code (cirp.org)

Sadly Human Rights were trod upon by the NZ government; by the very people who should at all costs be protecting them.

This is why in 2022 we salute those who stood by to uphold the rights of all people to choose.

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