Fordham Law School’s Leitner Center for International Law and Justice released a report on April 14 that concluded that levels of domestic violence against women in New Zealand have remained high in spite of the nation’s commitment under international law to prevent and punish such acts. The report estimates that one in three women is a victim of domestic violence in the island nation.
The research was compiled by a Fordham Law delegation: Professors Jeanmarie Fenrich, Paolo Galizzi and Chi Mgbako; Jorge Contesse, the 2007-08 Crowley Fellow in International Human Rights; eight second-year law students and an assistant. The group went to several towns in New Zealand to meet with lawyers, judges, legislators, members of government and ordinary citizens, among others.
Contesse appeared on TV New Zealand on April 14 to present the report’s findings. Read more about the report on the Leitner Center’s website “and see Contesse’s interview here, where he says “universal human rights do not only apply to third-world countries.”
