Human Rights Review Tribunal “overwhelmed”

Serious under resourcing and a lack of personnel are being blamed for massive delays at New Zealand's tribunal dedicated to protecting our human rights. In a briefing paper to the Minister of Justice Andrew Little in November, the Human Rights Review Tribunal's chair Roger Haines QC, said huge delays were putting it in danger of "collapsing" under a massive backlog over which the previous government had been repeatedly warned. The Tribunal was forced to stop scheduling hearings late last year because it was so behind writing up decisions for cases that had already been heard - some as many as three years earlier. Kathryn talks with Rosslyn Noonan, former Chief Commissioner for the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, and now at The New Zealand Centre for Human Rights Law at the University of Auckland.