The Human Rights Commission is supporting the call for historic homosexual convictions to be overturned and the human rights of those convicted restored. Human Rights Commissioner Richard Tankersley says that as we commemorate 30 years on from the passing of the Homosexual Law Reform Act, the time is right for the Government to consider action. “The passing of the Homosexual Law Reform Act was a landmark for human rights and justice in New Zealand. With the rest of the Human Rights Commission, I am thrilled to be celebrating this important milestone along with the LGBTIQ communities of NZ and their friends and supporters. “As a newly-out activist at the time of the campaign, I have to say that the 1985-86 demonstrations were by far the scariest and most disturbing with opposition to the Bill being hateful, vicious and frequently directed personally at individuals. “Passing the Act required immense courage from the communities, MPs and people from the wider community who stuck their necks out for what was right - it’s important that we acknowledge those heroes,” Tankersley says. The Commission also says it would welcome an apology to those convicted, issued by the Government. “We would encourage the Government to start a restitution process, such as a ministerial inquiry, that would see all pre-Act conviction files reviewed to identify those who received a conviction for what would now be lawful under the Act,” Tankersley says. “This would enable the Government to take proactive steps to pardon [or void the conviction] of those people and avoid a reactive case-by-case decision-making process, which would likely be a drawn-out, costly and difficult process for these people and their families.” “The passing of the Act was a major step forward for human rights for LGBTIQ people, however, given that Part II of the Bill which covered Human Rights provisions was lost, it was just the start.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 8th July 2016 - 3:07pm