Gregory Fortuin and his children with former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela. (Photo supplied)

New Zealand has shamefully abandoned its reputation for standing up for human rights, writes former New Zealand Race Relations Commissioner, Gregory Fortuin.

I can barely find words to convey my disgust at New Zealand’s response to a United Nations vote to name slavery as “the gravest crime against humanity”.

The landmark resolution passed last month with the backing of the African Union and the Caribbean community. The vote was proposed by Ghana’s president, John Dramani Mahama, who said: “Let it be recorded that when history beckoned, we did what was right for the memory of millions who suffered the indignity of slavery.”

The resolution also called for reparations as “a concrete step towards remedying historical wrongs”.

Voting in favour were 123 states, while Argentina, Israel and the US voted against. There were 52 abstentions, including the UK, members of the EU, and New Zealand.

In other words, our country stood alongside European colonisers, and by extension, the US and Israel — because you either condemn enslavement, or you agree with it using your silence.

As a young man growing up in South Africa, I called white people “master” and their children “little master”. I only had to call the white supremacist “Baas”, and I still weep.

New Zealand has historically punched above its weight on issues of human rights, and our leaders have consistently championed the cause. We’ve never been anyone’s lackeys. Our size didn’t matter, our moral compass did.

Thanks to the courage of Kate Sheppard, we were the first country in the world to give women the vote. David Lange stared down America to stand for a nuclear-free world and the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. We earned a global reputation for contributing to international peacekeeping efforts.

In 2001, I visited Rwanda and, together with the country’s justice minister, the late Jean de Dieu Mucyo, walked around sites where the genocide took place seven years earlier.

Later, I shared a meal with the prosecutor-general and the deputy justice minister, Judge Gerald Gahima. He sang New Zealand’s praises for our “credibility and championing of human rights” on the international stage during that terrible period in his country’s history.

Both ministers had high praise for Colin Keating, New Zealand’s former permanent representative to the United Nations, who shone a spotlight on their plight while the genocide was happening. Keating’s courageous stance wasn’t vindicated until 20 years later when the UN finally apologised for its failure to respond.

But over the past two years, our global reputation for fierce independence and commitment to human decency has been seriously betrayed.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous People has been scathing about the erosion of Māori rights under this government, which has seriously set back Crown-Māori relationships.

The wilful disregard of our founding document is abundantly evident in their petty reversal of government department names, from reo Māori to English.

Paul Goldsmith, the current justice minister, merely shrugged when the High Court ruled that the appointment process for our Chief Human Rights Commissioner was unlawful.

His utter arrogance — as the custodian and defender of our justice system, responsible for upholding fairness and protecting human rights — speaks volumes about this government’s approach.

Don’t get me started on their approach to pay equity, or their blatant disregard of the recommendations on diversity and social cohesion that came out of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch terrorist attack.

They are following Trump. So they duck and dive for cover when it comes to the vitriol that inspires abuse towards our Jewish, Sikh, Muslim and other communities.

Their gutless approach to not re-stating New Zealand’s long held position on the two-state solution in Palestine is part of not wanting to offend Trump. In contrast to Keating’s leadership on Rwanda, we have been woefully silent on the genocide in Gaza.

Yes, of course, Hamas and Hezbollah are evil and should never hold leadership roles in a decent society. We are all agreed there, so let’s remove that as an excuse for silence on Netanyahu’s atrocities.

We like to condemn dictators like Putin for suppressing freedom of speech, yet Israel has banned independent media and countless journalists have been murdered. Yet still there’s only deafening silence from our leaders.

Then there is the illegal war in the Middle East. No one is shedding a tear for the brutal Iranian regime. But last year this government had an opportunity to designate the IRGC, the primary force of the Iranian armed forces, as a terrorist organisation, and was found wanting.

Now the government remains “disgracefully silent”, to quote Helen Clark, by refusing to speak out against the wannabe king Trump, who has scant regard for international rules.

Could our government not at least say something about the murder of 160 innocent school children? Or do something about special visas to help reunite families?

Trump’s vanity is such that he has been clueless about the endgame. He has been led by the nose by Netanyahu, who still seems set on turning Iran and Lebanon into the same rubble as Gaza with zero regard for civilian lives.

As Putin apologist Tucker Carlson said: “Trump is fighting Netanyahu’s war.” Neither cares a jot for ordinary Iranians — they are simply cannon fodder.

Although President George Bush lied about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, he at least tried to build a case for war to convince his international allies. He played by the international rules. The despotic Trump doesn’t care enough to even pretend.

Which brings us back to New Zealand and this government.

They need to grow a spine and stop the betrayal of our national values. Be the champion of human rights that so many, like the Rwandan minister of justice, understand us to be. Our DNA is the same. International rules and human rights haven’t changed.

All that’s changed is that the world has one more despotic manchild, who is prepared to bully and vandalise his way through the international order.

And after he takes his wrecking ball through the Middle East, maybe he’ll turn on Cuba and Greenland, as he’s threatened, or perhaps Putin murders Zelenskyy and China takes Taiwan, who knows.

We sanction all such outcomes by saying nothing. Our silence is acquiescence.

My plea is for our leaders to tell the world that we still believe in respectful negotiations, equal partnerships, peaceful coexistence, inclusive global security, and most of all, that New Zealand upholds its historic commitment to our common humanity.

Gregory Fortuin is a former New Zealand Race Relations Commissioner and South African Honorary Consul to New Zealand, appointed by Nelson Mandela. A survivor of apartheid, he is a long-time advocate for justice, human dignity, and social cohesion in Aotearoa and beyond.

E-Tangata, 2026