A/HRC/18/35/Add.4 2. Health 61. Since the visit of the previous Special Rapporteur, the Government has rolled out Whakatataka Tuarua: Maori Health Action Plan (2006-2011) and He Korowai Oranga: Maori Health Strategy, which provides a framework for the public sector to support the health of Maori whanau. Yet, according to all available indicators, Maori continue to experience higher levels of many health problems than non-Maori, including disproportionate levels of cancer, diabetes, heart failure and communicable diseases. From 2005 to 2007, male life expectancy at birth was 79.0 years for non-Maori, but 70.4 years for Maori.41 Female life expectancy at birth was 83.0 years for non-Maori and 75.1 years for Maori.42 Infant mortality rates are higher for Maori than Asian or European New Zealanders, and rates of childhood vaccination are lower among Maori.43 Maori also continue to experience higher levels of drug and alcohol abuse,44 suicide (20 per cent of national suicides in 2007), smoking (more than twice the national rate at 46 per cent) and obesity (nearly twice the national rate at 43 per cent).45 Maori are also nearly three times as likely as non-Maori to die as the result of an assault, with nearly 20 per cent of Maori women reporting being assaulted or threatened by an intimate partner, three times the national average.46 3. Administration of justice 62. Regrettably, there has been little change in the incarceration rate of Maori since the previous Special Rapporteur’s visit. As of February 2010, Maori comprised just over 51 per cent of the prison population of New Zealand, despite the fact that Maori make up only about 14 per cent of the total population.47 Maori youth also make up around 50 per cent of all youth offenders despite Maori being only about a quarter of the New Zealand population under 17 years of age. This figure is even higher for women; Maori women make up nearly 60 per cent of the female prison population, although it should be noted that the total female prison population is still quite low.48 In addition to the negative impacts on individual incarcerated individuals and their families, high incarceration rates have a potentially significant impact on Maori political participation, as the New Zealand electoral law specifies that citizens who have been sentenced and imprisoned lose their voting rights. 63. The Special Rapporteur is encouraged to learn that the Government is taking targeted action to address this distressing situation. In January 2009, the Department of Corrections established the Rehabilitation and Reintegration Service, which provides a number of programmes and services specifically aimed at reducing the rate at which Maori re-offend through the use of tikanga Maori (customary Maori) concepts and values, including therapeutic programmes and programmes that aim to establish links between 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 18 New Zealand, Ministry of Social Development, 2010 The Social Report (Wellington, 2010), p. 26. Available from www.socialreport.msd.govt.nz/documents/the-social-report-2010.pdf www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/an-indication-nz-health-2007. Ibid. New Zealand, Ministry of Health, An Indication of New Zealanders’ Health 2007 (Wellington, 2007), p. 11. Ibid., p. 10. New Zealand, Ministry of Social Development, 2010 The Social Report (note 41 above), pp. 29, 30 and 33. Ibid., pp. 103-105. New Zealand, “Visit of the United Nations Special Rapporteur to Aotearoa New Zealand, 18-23 July 2010, pre-visit/background reading”, p. 9. Ibid.