This article is the third in a series for The Circular by the members of the NCWNZ International Action Hub. The series highlights the many different international treaties to which New Zealand is a signatory and how this impacts women and girls.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is one of the core international human rights treaties adopted by the United Nations in 1966. It sets out fundamental civil and political rights that all people are entitled to, simply by virtue of being human. New Zealand ratified the ICCPR in 1978, meaning our government has committed to uphold and protect these rights in law, policy, and practice.

For women and girls in Aotearoa, the Covenant is not abstract. It provides a powerful framework for equality, safety, and participation. Countries that have ratified the Covenant must report regularly to the UN Human Rights Committee on how they are implementing it.

Civil society organisations, including women’s groups, can also submit 'shadow reports' to highlight gaps between law and lived reality. This creates an important accountability mechanism.

The Covenant protects a wide range of civil and political freedoms. Key rights include:

• The right to life 
• Freedom from Torture and cruel inhuman or degrading treatment
• Freedom from discrimination
• Equality before the law
• Freedom of expression, assembly and association
• Political participation

While New Zealand has strong human rights frameworks, rights are not self-executing. They require vigilance. The following issues, for example, all intersect with rights protected under the ICCPR:

• Gender-based violence
• Pay equity and economic justice
• Online safety
• Overrepresentation of wāhine Māori in the justice system
• Barriers to political participation

The Covenant reminds us that civil and political rights are not optional or secondary — they are binding commitments.

The Federation of Business and Professional Women of New Zealand (BPW NZ) is chiefly concerned with advancing economic and workplace equality for women, holding government policies to account through advocacy and submissions, and empowering women’s leadership and professional growth. Their work spans local policy issues through to international human-rights engagement, with a strong emphasis on the economic justice and structural barriers women face in Aotearoa.

Right now, BPW NZ is reporting and advocating on issues that connect strongly to core ICCPR obligations:

• Pay equity reform and access to effective remedies, including responses to recent law changes that could limit women’s ability to seek redress for discrimination. The organisation has publicly criticised government decisions that halted or made it harder to pursue pay equity claims, calling them 'detrimental to women' and a 'step backwards' for workplace equality. BPW NZ doesn’t just talk about gender pay inequality — it actively challenges policy decisions that weaken the legal tools
  women have to seek fair pay.
• Engagement with New Zealand’s ICCPR State Report process, which offers an opportunity for civil society voices (including BPW NZ) to shape how the country’s human rights record is presented to the UN.
• Legislative submissions that challenge laws or proposals with potential
  discriminatory impacts, advocating for gender impact analysis and accountability. BPW NZ made a detailed submission on the Regulatory Standards Bill, arguing that the proposed law did not require gender impact analysis and could weaken accountability mechanisms that protect women’s rights.
• Intersectional advocacy that highlights how gender and racial discrimination intersect, aligning with ICCPR principles of equality before the law. BPW NZ is actively preparing submissions for the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) periodic review, calling out entrenched racial disparities that disproportionately affect women, especially Māori, Pasifika, Asian, and migrant women. These concerns connect with ICCPR commitments to non-discrimination and equality before the law.

The ICCPR is not simply a treaty New Zealand signed nearly fifty years ago. It is a living commitment — one that must be measured not only by legislation on paper, but by the everyday realities of women and girls across Aotearoa.

For organisations like BPW NZ, and for NCWNZ members more broadly, the Covenant provides both a framework and a responsibility. It reminds us that economic justice is inseparable from civil and political rights. That equality before the law must translate into effective remedies. That freedom of expression and participation must include women’s voices at every decision-making table. And that non-discrimination is not aspirational — it is binding.

The ICCPR calls on governments to act. It also calls on us to hold them to that
promise. In doing so, we strengthen not only women’s rights, but the integrity of our democracy itself.

By

Sherryll Markie-Brookes
Vice President Issues, BPW NZ
   and member of NCWNZ International Action Hub

See the other articles in this series here:

• "Convention Against Torture & Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment," by Megan Hutching (August 29, 2025). https://www.ncwnz.org.nz/convention_against_torture
• "New Zealand women and the Polyglot Petition," by Randolph Hollingsworth (27 October 2025). https://www.ncwnz.org.nz/new_zealand_women_and_the_polyglot_petition

To read more articles from The Circular (March-April 2026) issue 656, click on the tag below.