News and events

24 June 2025: Global Challenges in Family Law: Safer Systems, Protective Policies and Humane Health online conference

The New Zealand Centre for Human Rights Law, Policy and Practice is co-sponsoring an online Health Justice conference with the SHERA Research Group at the University of Manchester on June 24th. The conference is titled “Global Challenges in Family Law: Safer Systems, Protective Policies and Humane Health.”

October 2023: Professor David B MacDonald: “Settler State Genocide Recognition and Indigenous Self-Determination: Some Considerations from Canada”

On 19 October 2023, Te Puna Rangahau o te Wai Ariki / The Aotearoa New Zealand Centre for Indigenous Peoples and the Law and The New Zealand Centre for Human Rights Law, Policy and Practice co-hosted a public talk by visiting fellow Professor David MacDonald.

Professor MacDonald is a professor of political science at the University of Guelph (Canada), a visiting scholar at the School of Law, Waipapa Taumata Rau / University of Auckland, and a fellow at the Aotearoa Centre for Indigenous Peoples and the Law. He has a PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics. He worked previously for the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission and is a member of the Royal Commission Forum.

September 2023: Alexandra Allen-Franks presented a paper at the European Human Rights Law Conference held at the University of Cambridge

Alexandra recently represented the Centre at the European Human Rights Law Review’s inaugural Bi-Annual Conference, held at the University of Cambridge over 28-29 September 2023. The theme of the conference was “Human Rights Law: Prospects, Possibilities, Fears and Limitations”. Alexandra was on a panel focused on Remedies and Enforcement and presented her paper titled “Possibilities and limitations of the inherent power of the court as a tool to secure remedies for human rights violations”. Her presentation addressed the way that courts in Aotearoa New Zealand have used the inherent power of the court to provide remedies for breaches of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (NZBORA), discussing the development of the prima facie rule of exclusion of evidence obtained in breach of NZBORA, Baigent damages, the recognition of ability to exclude evidence obtained in breach of NZBORA in civil proceedings, and the Supreme Court’s recent affirmation of the power of the High Court to issue a declaration of inconsistency pursuant to NZBORA.