A group has filed a claim with the Human Rights Review Tribunal against New Zealand's adoption legislation which it says is discriminatory on a number of grounds, including sexual orientation. Adoption Action, which is made up of academics and people impacted by the current law, says the 1955 Adoption Act law is out of touch with society, and is breaching the Bill of Rights and the Human Rights Act. It claims people are discriminated against on the grounds of sexual orientation, as well a sex, marital status, religious or ethical belief, ethnicity, origin and disability. Adoption Action spokesman Robert Ludbrook says New Zealand’s adoption laws are out of touch with contemporary social attitude. "They reflect a time in our history when the parents of a child born out of wedlock were viewed as immoral and their children deemed illegitimate. Adoption was shrouded in 'secrets and lies'." He says New Zealand's adoption laws have been singled out by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and by the Human Rights Commission as infringing the rights of children. "Successive governments have given assurances over the last two decades that they are moving to implement major reform of our adoption laws but nothing has happened." In a major review of human rights the Human Rights Commission conducted last year, one of the findings was that people of all sexual orientation are entitled to the full enjoyment of all human rights, and one of those is the right to form a family.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 29th July 2011 - 12:40pm