Professor Claire Charters in the media

Professor Claire Charters
Professor Claire Charters
  • Māori academic says Te Tiriti o Waitangi relevant for Pasifika people
    6 February 2025
    Today marks 185 years since the signing of the Te Tiriti (or Treaty of Waitangi in English) in Aotearoa and Professor Claire Charters (Ngāti Whakaue, Tūwharetoa, Ngā Puhi, Tainui) talks to RNZ Pacific Waves. Listen to the interview.
  • Sovereignty debate sees major parties weighing in for first time
    30 August 2024
    Professor Claire Charters, on the RNZ Focus on Politics podcast, said the te reo Māori version of Te Tiriti will always take precedence in the law. 
  • Māori rights to face global spotlight as UN send special envoy to Aotearoa
    20 March 2024
    Te Puna Rangahau o Wai Ariki (University of Auckland’s Centre for Indigenous Peoples and the Law) director Professor Claire Charters calls those cases a serious miscarriage of justice and says it shows how Parliament can override the rights of indigenous people. Read the Te Ao News article.
  • Human Rights and Indigenous Rights in New Zealand
    15 March 2024
    On this episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse talks with Claire Charters, who was recently named in the role of Rongomau Taketake to lead work on the Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission in Aotearoa/New Zealand
  • Claire Charters: Let’s imagine a new constitution
    7 April 2024
    Aotearoa is one of only a few countries without a written constitution. As a result, we have some of the weakest protections of minorities in the world, Professor Claire Charters told E-Tangata. Read the full interview.
  • Te Tiriti principles
    23 January 2024
    Professor Claire Charters was a guest on ABC’s Law Report podcast regarding concern over the New Zealand government’s plan to wind back the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.
  • He Puapua and government opposition
    22 December 2023
    95bFM interviewed Professor Claire Charters, who said she wasn’t sure the National-led coalition government’s plan to terminate all work on He Puapua was doing anything.
  • Actions by new government will make NZ fall behind as ‘world leader in Indigenous rights’ – scholar
    12 December 2023
    Indigenous rights scholar and activist Professor Claire Charters told Te Ao Māori News she hopes the government will listen to Māori and “heed our concerns and our fears and our advice about the policies that have been coming out since the election of this new government”.
  • Human Rights Commission stands by shared leader appointment
    12 December 2023
    The Human Rights Commission’s indigenous rights spokeswoman, Auckland University Law Professor Claire Charters, says any move to axe a new co-chief executive position would fly in the face our international human rights obligations. Read the article.
  • NZ Sliding backwards on human rights
    11 December 2023
    On The Detail, Wilhelmina Shrimpton looks at the declaration, what it means for us, and the areas where we are falling down - as the new government plans to change the inner workings of the Human Rights Commission, and its coalition partner ACT declares it should be abolished all together. 
  • A breakdown of the issues at the centre of Māori protests in New Zealand
    8 December 2023
    Professor Charters spoke with NPR about the coalition government’s plans to review te Tiriti, close the Māori Health Authority, curb the use of Māori language in government organisations and other policy changes.
  • ‘A massive unravelling’: fears for Māori rights as New Zealand government reviews treaty
    1 December 2023
    Professor Claire Charters discussed the benefits of self-determination in a Guardian article.
  • Protest an option as treaty principles revised
    30 November 2023
    Māori may have no other option than to protest against the government's proposed policy changes, Professor Claire Charters told Waatea News.
  • Poll finds majority believe te Tiriti applies to everyone
    23 November 2023
    Professor Claire Charters talks with Corin Dann on Morning Report. Listen to the RNZ interview.
  • Voice to Parliament Australia – how indigenous peoples in Aotearoa NZ were used by both sides of the referendum campaign and how the result may impact indigenous rights in Aotearoa and internationally
    13 November 2023
    Christchurch City Libraries blog hosts a series of regular podcasts from specialist human rights radio show Speak up - Kōrerotia. Listen to the podcast.
  • NZ's longest-running property dispute heads back to court
    14 August 2023
    Professor Claire Charters spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss on RNZ Morning Report.
  • Nelson land case an example for other Indigenous peoples
    5 August 2023
    Professor Claire Charters was involved with Wakatu’s Supreme Court case in 2017 and she told RNZ that Wakatu’s efforts are an example for indigenous peoples worldwide to assert their rights and reclaim their cultural heritage.
  • Rongomau Taketake comment on human rights impacts for Māori after Cyclone Gabriel
    3 August 2023
    Chief Human Rights Commissioner Paul Hunt & Rongomau Taketake Claire Charters visited Cyclone-affected areas last week. Read the article.
  • Interview with Peter Williams discussing He Puapua
    8 November 2022
    Peter Williams is back on Taxpayer Talk with a highly anticipated interview with Professor Claire Charters.  
  • The Contentious Vote in Chile That Could Transform Indigenous Rights
    2 September 2022
    The proposed constitution would enshrine some of the world’s most extensive Indigenous rights. But those reforms have become the focal point of the campaign to reject the new text. Read the full interview.
  • The Visionaries – interview with Moana Maniapoto and Jacinta Ruru discussing He Puapua – opportunity or threat?
    2022
    In this video from the Auckland Writers Festival, Working group members, writers and lawyers Professor Claire Charters (Ngāti Whakaue, Tūwharetoa, Ngāpuhi, Tainui) and Jacinta Ruru (Raukawa, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Maniapoto) discuss sovereignty, mātauranga Māori and igniting the imagination, with Moana Maniapoto (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Te Arawa).
  • He Puapua - unity not division
    1 July 2021
    The Government is preparing to make an announcement today about the He Puapua report. Report co-author Professor Claire Charters told Mike Hosking the discussion doesn't need to be divisive. 
  • Indigenous People Advance a Dramatic Goal: Reversing Colonialism
    17 June 2021
    Fifty years of patient advocacy, including the shocking discovery of a mass burial site at Kamloops, have secured once unthinkable gains. Professor Claire Charters discussed the issue on New York Times.
  • Incorporating tikanga Māori into a written constitution
    26 August 2019
    New Zealand doesn't have a single constitutional document, although we do have an unwritten constitution made up of different pieces of legislation. Law professor Claire Charters thinks the status quo isn't fit for purpose and we need a constitution which explicitly recognises iwi rangitiratanga. Listen to the full interview on RNZ for more insights.
  • The US can learn a lot from New Zealand on how to embrace indigenous cultures
    13 October 2014
    In New Zealand, the constitutional narrative is built on the Treaty of Waitangi, writes Fulbright scholar and legal academic Claire Charters in a Guardian Article, which means that Māori and state relations are central to New Zealand’s understanding of itself.

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