Key's UN Agenda vs. Anti-Smacking Law

John Key meets UN Secretary, Sept 2009 (NZPA)

I've thought if for a while now, but Brendan Malone over at the Semper Vita blog sums up very nicely the Prime Ministers's ulterior motive in what seemed to many like political suicide and blatantly ignoring the voice of 87.6% of his constituents.

So what has the UN Security Council got to do with the NZ anti-smacking law?
Well, quite simply, the UN is politics on a global scale, and that means lots and lots of wheeling and dealing and unprincipled compromising in order to gain the perfect outcome that one desires.
In this case, Mr. Key has made no bones about the fact that he is definitely keen to secure a NZ seat on the UN Security Council, but to do that he’ll have to dance the dance of the UN faithful – and that doesn’t bode well for a change to New Zealand’s anti-smacking law.
Why?
Well, in 1993 New Zealand became a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Then in 2003 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child issued a report which criticized New Zealand regarding it’s failure to revoke the old Section 59 law.

Continue Reading. Brendan writes a Life Matters column every Friday, worth checking out.