The Government has poured cold water on the prospect of an autonomous sanctions regime to tackle human rights breaches abroad, despite the National Party campaigning for the proposal while in opposition.
The news comes as foreign affairs officials continue to withhold the findings of a $52,000 report on whether New Zealand has the right foreign policy tools to deal with human rights violations by our international partners.
In January last year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade revealed to Newsroom it had set up an expert group to advise the Government on how to best respond to “grave international situations of concern involving threats to peace and security and breaches of human rights” – including the benefits and disadvantages of autonomous sanctions.
Under current settings, New Zealand cannot impose sanctions against foreign individuals and entities unless they have been adopted through a resolution of the United Nations Security Council – a body subject to special veto powers from permanent members China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and United States.
In March 2022, Parliament hurriedly passed the Russia Sanctions Act into law so it could penalise those involved in the invasion of Ukraine, given any attempt at UN sanctions would have been blocked by Vladimir Putin’s regime. Then-foreign affairs minister Nanaia Mahuta initially suggested more broad-based legislation would soon follow, only to backpedal, with the work of the expert group filling that void.
In response to an Official Information Act request from Newsroom, the ministry revealed it had spent more than $52,000 on the group’s work – made up of over $46,000 in fees for the group’s members, and upwards of $6000 in expenses including travel and meals.
The group had submitted its final report, including recommendations, to the ministry’s chief executive Chris Seed in May 2023 (Seed retired from the role earlier this month).
However, the ministry has refused to release any of the documents from the group’s meetings or its final report, arguing the work had been “commissioned and provided to the previous government in confidence”.
“Given the nature of the subject matter of the report, the present Government also requires a period of time to consider it in confidence.”
A ministry spokesperson, who declined to be identified, told Newsroom officials had recently updated Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters on the group’s work and the ministry’s advice when it provided him with a copy of the report.
The Labour government inherited autonomous sanctions legislation from the National administration upon taking office in 2017 but eventually pulled it from the order paper. A near-identical member’s bill from National foreign affairs spokesman Gerry Brownlee (now Speaker of the House) failed at its first reading in 2021, with just National and Act voting in favour.
In late 2022, Brownlee called on the then-government to undertake “urgent work” on an autonomous sanctions regime, saying: “It is becoming abundantly clearer that there are rogue governments that New Zealand will want nothing to do with, and we do not want to be dependent on the United Nations to bring down sanctions.”
But the proposal was absent from National’s election manifesto, and Peters – who held the foreign affairs manifesto in the Labour-led government’s first term when nothing was done to progress the existing legislation – does not appear eager to forge ahead with any changes to the status quo.
In a written statement, Peters told Newsroom he and his fellow ministers would “carefully consider the recommendations … taking into account the Government’s international agenda and priorities”.
“Let me be absolutely clear: we are strongly committed to upholding international peace and security, international rules, democratic norms and human rights. However, there would be risks associated with, and cost implications of, an autonomous sanctions regime, which we are reviewing carefully.”
Peters said New Zealand could impose sanctions if agreed by a UN Security Council resolution, while other foreign policy tools to respond to human rights abuses included direct engagement with the state concerned, public statements, multilateral resolutions, export controls, and travel bans.
The Russia Sanctions Act had also shown that “for the most serious situations, New Zealand can pass bespoke legislation when the situation calls for it”, he added.
