Salom, Shalom, Nei Hou, Ni hao

The past two months have been a whirlwind of International Women’s Day activities and preparing for the end of the financial year and the annual reporting process. The operational business of focusing on what we have achieved last year is a good reflective process, particularly when it informs our future directions. The Board is continuing to consider our strategic direction and prepare for the transitions ahead.

Last Circular I talked about the organisational value of being courageous. This Circular I would like to reflect on the value that 'inclusivity is the core of our mahi'. NCWNZ has long considered ourselves to be inclusive, that is, welcoming everyone, advocating on behalf of a wide range of women. Yet it is worth examining how well we actually do this. Being inclusive means not just saying we include everyone but going out of our way to make this possible. It means educating ourselves about cultural attributes that differ from our own cultures, finding out about the impacts of different (dis)abilities, considering whether our processes (times, spaces, channels of communication etc.) present barriers to some people. In short, it means mahi – work – on that part of us who are already in NCWNZ to include those who would like to join us.

Our recent beading night brought together 44 people for a sold-out, feel-good Friday evening. With a table full of colourful beads there were endless options for creating creative jewelry.

The atmosphere quickly became lively, with people chatting, laughing, and comparing designs as they worked on their jewellery. We added a light touch with a few beading facts displayed around the room, highlighting how beadwork is used in different cultures worldwide. They were there for anyone interested, without taking away from the relaxed, social feel of the night.

NCWNZ was invited and funded to attend the Women Power Forum by the Hong Kong Federation of Women (HKFW). Suzanne Manning and Kerri Du Pont represented NCWNZ at this Forum which was held on 1-2 April 2026.

The Women Power Forum is a biennial event organized by the HKFW and the Golden Bauhinia Women Entrepreneur Association. It focused on women’s empowerment, bringing together leaders from different sectors in Hong Kong, China, and internationally for networking and sharing ideas. This was the 4th Forum, the first one being in 2019.

The Board recently had the Te Rōpū Wāhine Māori Toko I Te Ora | Māori Women’s Welfare League (MWWL) brooch repaired. The clasp was loose and the safety chain was broken, and therefore in danger of being lost when worn. As a tohu – a symbol – of the long-standing relationship between the MWWL and NCWNZ, this was a risk the Board did not want to take. Thank you to Jubilee Jewellers in Wellington for doing this work.

What Happened in 2025?

2025 was a busy and impactful year for the International Action Hub - with key highlights including: 

• Organising the third Women at the Table on Climate Change event in May 2025, in partnership with the Council of International Development and UN Women Aotearoa New Zealand.  This was a hybrid event chaired by Madison Walker CEO UN Women NZ and Eva Hartshorn-Sanders, convenor of the International Action Hub of NCWNZ (we stepped in at the last minute as Nanaia Mahuta was attending the tangi of a close friend).  The focus of the third event was to understand a business, union and philanthropy approach to climate action (following two earlier events that had focused on government / politics and international frameworks, and NGO work).  Speakers included:
  • Cheryl Spain, CEO of the Gift Trust
  • Jo Tyndall, Director of the Environment Directorate, OECD
  • Elly Rosita Silaban, President of KSBSI (the Indonesian Workers’ Welfare Union) 
  • Ella Tunnicliffe-Glass, Senior Manager Sustainability Strategy, Fonterra
  • Katie Beith, Head of ESG at Forsyth Barr

You can watch the YouTube recording of this event here.

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

In May 2025 the New Zealand Government chose to overturn our formerly world-leading pay equity legislation. The changes had been in the works for nearly a year, and the People's Select Committee on Pay Equity (PSCPE) formed in February 2024 as an organised voice for the communities affected by the law.

Many submitters to the PSCPE reported human rights violations due to both the Equal Pay Amendment Bill’s content and its legislative process. In the report Kei te rapu te iwi: Inquiry into the Equal Pay Amendment Act 2025 (24 February 2026), the PSCPE described breaches of the following international treaties of which New Zealand is a member:

• International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 100,
• the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
• the International Covenant on Economic and Social Rights,
• Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW),
• the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and
• the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

The PSCPE found that the New Zealand Government indicated no consideration of its international legal commitments under these treaties, and in some cases wilfully and knowingly acted in breach of its international legal commitments. The report's findings relating to each of these international treaty obligations are summarised below.

The Health Action Hub held its bimonthly meeting on 22 April, focusing on housing and homelessness. Jenny Ombler, Research Fellow at the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities and He Kāinga Oranga/Housing and Health Research Programme, presented her research on ending homelessness in Aotearoa. Her presentation was followed by a discussion with members on the gendered dimensions of homelessness, the factors contributing to women’s housing insecurity, and the challenges of finding effective solutions.

The Hub recently made a submission, led by Nicky Newton, to a UN Committee on violence against older women. We appreciate the responses from members and organisations, which enabled Nicky to identify key issues affecting older women and to make recommendations for international consideration.

The Health Select Committee has now reported back on the Improving Arrangements for Surrogacy Bill. Overall, the Bill represents a significant improvement, and many of NCWNZ’s concerns, outlined in our submission on 16 September 2024 (.pdf file, S24.15, on the NCWNZ website), have been addressed in some form. In particular, the strengthening of the rights and interests of children born through surrogacy is welcome. However, protections for surrogate mothers have been addressed less comprehensively.

Below is a series of topics that need further attention.

1. Primacy of the child’s interests

NCWNZ recommended amending the HART Act 2004 to explicitly state that the child’s interests are paramount. While this was not adopted directly, the Committee strengthened child‑centred safeguards, including:

• mandatory Oranga Tamariki reports for all surrogacy approval applications;
• expanded ECART powers to cancel approvals where conditions are not met;
• confirmation that courts must consider the Verona Principles when determining the child’s best interests; and,
• amendments to citizenship law to ensure surrogate‑born children retain New Zealand citizenship by birth.

In the midst of the Cold War and the horrific conflicts occurring throughout Asia and Africa coping with the decolonisation efforts of the 1960s and 1970s, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women succeeded in crafting the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in 1967. In 1972 the United Nations proclaimed 1975 as the International Women's Year - and the CSW began working on the organisational structures to assure the creation of CEDAW, a legally binding treaty, at the Convention level, to oversee the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. What followed was the massive work by the UN and NGO representatives to organise four world conferences on women: Mexico City in 1975, Copenhagen in 1980, Nairobi in 1985 and Beijing in 1995.

A powerful report on this topic by Stephanie Oula, Sia Nowrojee, and Mayra Buvinic, The United Nations and the Global Women's Movement: Learning from the Past, Looking to the Future (UN Foundation, 2025), is available for download here.

This series of milestone events and more information can be gathered from the report's accompanying website: Where the Future was Built: The Story of the UN World Conferences on Women, https://www.wherethefuturewasbuilt.org/.