ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the New Zealand case in light of the constructivist cost of commitment explanation. It has ratified numerous human rights instruments, including the ICERD, the ICCPR, the ICESCR, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. New Zealand's Indigenous rights high behavior/low commitment pattern defies the usual explanations of state compliance. The Labour Party's position, as a centre-left party on the New Zealand political spectrum, places a high priority on social policy and workers rights, but the underlying assumptions about power and the discourses surrounding Mori, reconciliation, and the Treaty are remarkably similar to the National Party. A group of Mori organizations lobbied the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN CERD) to consider the legislation, and it sent Special Rapporteur (UNSR) Rudolfo Stavenhagen to investigate and report on the situation in New Zealand.
