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The Application Of Section 59 Of The Crimes Act In The New Zealand Courts


 

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Author

John Hancock

Presenter

John Hancock
       

Organisation

Senior Solicitor, YouthLaw Tino Rangatiratanga Taitamariki (Inc.), Auckland Committee Member, Action for Children and Youth Aotearoa (Inc.), Auckland

The application of section 59 of the Crimes Act in the New Zealand Courts underlines its inherently problematic nature. The section 59 defence has been successfully raised in jury trials where parents has been prosecuted for hitting their child with a belt, hitting their child with a hosepipe hitting their child with a piece of wood and chaining their child in metal chains to prevent them leaving the house. These seemingly extreme actions have been found reasonable, and therefore lawful, means of domestic discipline towards children in New Zealand.

In contrast, similar instances of corporal punishment have been found unreasonable by Court of Appeal, High Court and Family Court judges. It would therefore appear that in some cases a certain degree of subjectivity filters through in legal determinations of section 59, given the variety of outcomes. In addition to this problematic aspect of the defence, section 59 is also very much at odds with the tenor of New Zealand's contemporary family law jurisdiction, a point that has been raised in the Courts.

This paper addresses the issue of section 59 through examination of different Court cases where the defence has been raised. It is clearly a law that has provided the Courts with difficulty, in addition to it being a clear obstacle to achieving a greater standard of welfare for children in New Zealand.

Presentation

Paper.

Biography

John Hancock is Senior Solicitor at YouthLaw Tino Rangatiratanga Taitamariki, a community law centre for children and young people. He is a Committee member of Action for Children and Youth Aotearoa (ACYA), the organisation that facilitated the 2003 NGO Report on New Zealand's implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Children and Youth Aotearoa 2003. He was also part of the New Zealand NGO delegation that presented the NZ NGO Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva in June 2003.