This morning, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child called out the failure of the New Zealand Government to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility. Referring to the current
minimum age of criminal responsibility, the Committee stated clearly that the NZ Government is "just not getting
children’s rights right".
The minimum age of criminal responsibility is the age at which tamariki (children) can be prosecuted for criminal
offending. In Aotearoa New Zealand, this age was set at 10 years old in 1961. In 2019, the UN advised that all State
parties should adopt a minimum age of at least 14 years old. Since then, the New Zealand Government has failed to take
steps to get in line with this recommendation. Today, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child described the current
minimum age of criminal responsibility in Aotearoa New Zealand as an "offence-based approach", not a "child-centred
approach", and they asked the Government to advise what steps are being taken to bring the minimum age of criminal
responsibility in line with UN standards.
Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand is calling on the New Zealand Government to uphold its international human rights commitments and raise the minimum age of
criminal responsibility from 10 to at least 14 years old.
Campaigns Director Lisa Woods said, "It is completely unacceptable that the Government has dragged its heels on this
issue. Today’s review by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is a damning indictment of the political lethargy
which continues to put young people at risk of life-long harm.
"What we risk with the current legislation is using the criminal justice system to respond to issues caused by, for
example, trauma and a lack of health and mental health support. Instead of solving problems caused by a lack of
resources and services, our current laws are funneling children into a system that can trap them for the rest of their
lives. This does irrevocable damage to the child, their whānau, and to the rest of society."Growing calls for reform
Aotearoa New Zealand ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993. The Convention lays out clear
recommendations for the country’s youth justice system, among other things. Following New Zealand’s third Universal
Periodic Review in January 2019, the Government agreed to consider whether the current minimum age of criminal
responsibility should be increased to align with international standards. In 2021, the Government advised that it was monitoring the progress of a working group set up to review the laws in Australia, where many states have
set the minimum age of criminal responsibility at 10 years old. But since then, the NZ Government have gone quiet,
despite the rising calls for reform.
"Raising the age of criminal responsibility is one of the many changes needed to improve the youth justice system in
Aotearoa New Zealand. Ultimately, transformational change is needed across many of the country’s big systems. Raising
the age of criminal responsibility is just one of many steps that the Government must take," said Woods.