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Young people more likely to value the Treaty than their elders
Young people are more likely to value the Treaty of Waitangi than their elders, according to the Human Rights Commission’s annual review of the Treaty relationship.
In a survey of 4000 year 9 students conducted by the Ministry of Education last year, two thirds said the Treaty held personal importance to them. By contrast, a Human Rights Commission survey on attitudes to the Treaty found that only half of adults surveyed considered the Treaty to be for all New Zealanders.
“While the questions were different, the answers do suggest that younger people have a more positive view of the relevance of the Treaty today”, says Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres.
The review notes a number of significant developments in the Treaty relationship in the past year, including a degree of closure on the foreshore and seabed controversy, a record level of Treaty settlement milestones, the report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Rights, and the publication of the Waitangi Tribunal’s WAI 262 report, Ko Aotearoa Tenei: This is New Zealand.
“The Tribunal report offers a real opportunity to consider how the Treaty relationship can develop after historical grievances have been settled,” says Mr de Bres. “As the Tribunal notes, New Zealand sits poised at a crossroads both in race relations and in our long quest for a mature sense of national identity”.
The review also notes that arrangements to involve iwi in natural resource management, including co-governance and advisory bodies, are increasingly a feature of Treaty settlements, particularly with regional councils.
Mr de Bres says that the report identifies two priorities for the Treaty relationship in 2012. They are the constitutional review, which includes consideration of the place of the Treaty in the constitutional framework, and the Government’s response to the Waitangi Tribunal Report on the future of the relationship between Māori and the Crown.
The Commission’s review of the Treaty relationship is part of a wider annual review of race relations, including discrimination, inequalities, language and the media, which will be published in March.
Read the The Treaty Relationship in 2011 – Te Hononga Tiriti it e tau 2011 (PDF 2.1Mb) or the summary of this chapter (PDF 1.5Mb).
Read the Treaty of Waitangi UMR Omnibus Results Nov 2011 (PPT 3Mb).