Kōrero: Human rights

The Human Rights (Gender Identity) Amendment Bill 2004 was a private member's bill aimed at ensuring transgender people were protected from discrimination under the Human Rights Act. The bill was withdrawn in 2006 after the attorney general decided that transgender people were in fact already covered by the 'sex discrimination' clause of the Act. This decision remains controversial, with some transgender people and other human-rights activists still calling for more specific legislation. In New Zealand the protection of human rights by legislation has often been the culmination of years of activism by citizens' groups.