Status: Completed
Project overview
The Human Rights Act 1993 protects the right to freedom from discrimination — for example, when accessing education, employment, housing, and goods and services.
In this project, Te Aka Matua o te Ture | Law Commission examined the protections in the Human Rights Act for people who are transgender, people who are non-binary and people who have an innate variation of sex characteristics (sometimes known as intersex).
The scope of the review is set out in our amended terms of reference dated 2 August 2023.
We completed our review and presented our Final Report to the Minister of Justice on 11 August 2025. We published our Final Report on 4 September 2025.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Law Commission does not decide for itself which topics it reviews. We are referred our projects by the Minister of Justice. Once referred a topic, we review it independently of government.
In November 2022, the Minister of Justice wrote to the Law Commission requesting we undertake a review of protections in the Human Rights Act for people who are transgender or non-binary or who have an innate variation of sex characteristics.
You can find out more information on how our law reform reviews come about on our website.
The Human Rights Act is mainly about discrimination. Discrimination is when someone treats you differently and worse than others based on a prohibited reason. The Human Rights Act states when it’s unlawful in Aotearoa New Zealand for someone to discriminate.
One way the Human Rights Act identifies when differences in treatment are unlawful is by singling out some “prohibited grounds of discrimination” in section 21. Currently, these are: sex; marital status; religious belief; ethical belief; colour; race; ethnic or national origins; disability; age; political opinion; employment status; family status; and sexual orientation.
The Act has rules that apply to the public sector. It has different rules that apply to the private sector, such as to employers and businesses.
You can find out more in our Beginners’ Guide to the Human Rights Act 1993.
The Law Commission was asked to review protections in the Human Rights Act for people who are transgender or non-binary or who have an innate variation of sex characteristics. While we explain these terms in the Final Report, a brief explanation is:
- A person who is transgender is someone whose gender identity is different to the sex they were assigned at birth.
- A person who is non-binary is someone whose gender identity does not fit exclusively into the binary of male or female.
- A person with an innate variation of sex characteristics is someone who was born with sex characteristics that differ from medical and social norms for male or female bodies (although, in some cases, the variation may not be evident until later in life). Some people with an innate variation of sex characteristics refer to themselves as intersex.
We published an Issues Paper in June 2024 that explained the background to the review, discussed the legal issues we had identified and sought feedback on a broad range of questions. This was followed by a 10-week consultation period.
Some ways we gathered feedback from the public were by:
- Receiving submissions from organisations and interested members of the public
- Holding or attending hui in conjunction with community groups.
- Receiving a spreadsheet from the Free Speech Union containing feedback on the review it had gathered through its website.
- Commissioning a community organisation to undertake confidential interviews with people with innate variation of sex characteristics on our behalf.
- Convening a wānanga of Māori pūkenga to learn some Māori perspectives on the issues in the review.
Our Final Report, completed in August 2025, concludes our review of protections in the Human Rights Act for people who are transgender or non-binary or who have an innate variation of sex characteristics. The Final Report makes 27 recommendations for reform to the Government.
You can read the 450-page Final Report on our website.
We have also published a 30-page Executive Summary and a two-page summary.
We intend to make available on our website over the coming months the submissions we received from organisations. We will also make available a summary of the submissions we received from individuals.
The Law Commission’s review has come to an end.
The Government will now consider our recommendations and decide whether to implement them.
You can find out more about the Law Commission and what happens to our work on our website.
Status: Completed
Terms of reference
Scope of the Review
The Law Commission will examine whether the current wording of the Human Rights Act 1993 adequately protects people who are transgender, people who are non-binary and people with innate variations of sex characteristics and, if not, what amendments should be made. The Law Commission’s review will include, but not be limited to, consideration of the following matters:
- Whether to extend, modify or further define the prohibited grounds of discrimination in section 21 of the Human Rights Act;
- In the light of any amendments the Law Commission may recommend to section 21, whether the techniques used in the Human Rights Act to distinguish between justified and unjustified discrimination remain adequate to protect the rights of all New Zealanders. In particular, the review will consider the various exceptions in the Human Rights Act that outline when differences in treatment are permissible;
- Whether any amendments are desirable to the sub-part in the Human Rights Act named “Other forms of discrimination”;
- Whether the law is consistent with Te Tiriti o Waitangi | the Treaty of Waitangi and ngā tikanga Māori, and whether it is responsive to the needs and concerns of Māori;
- Whether any consequential amendments to other legislation are desirable and/or whether any reforms we propose to the Human Rights Act may have consequential implications for other legislation.
Matters that will not be included in the Review
There are several limitations on the scope of this review.
First, the Law Commission has only been asked to examine the adequacy of protections in the Human Rights Act. This project will not involve an independent review of any other New Zealand laws (although we may recommend consequential amendments to other legislation and/or consider the consequential implications for other legislation of any proposals for reform). For example, the project will not involve an independent review of references to sex or gender in other New Zealand legislation.
Second, this also means the Law Commission will not be directly reviewing the human rights protections found in other human rights statutes (such as the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990) or at international law. The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act protects a range of rights such as fair trial rights and the freedoms of opinion and belief, expression, religion and association. By contrast, the Human Rights Act primarily relates to anti-discrimination law.
Third, the Law Commission has not been asked to review the Human Rights Act as a whole. The focus of this review is specifically on protections in the Human Rights Act for people who are transgender, non-binary and/or have innate variations of sex characteristics.
Finally, the Law Commission has decided that, in this project, it will not review:
- Sections 61 and 131 of the Human Rights Act, which relate to the incitement of racial disharmony. This follows a request from the Minister of Justice that the Commission withdraw issues relating to hate speech from its work programme.
- Section 63A of the Human Rights Act, which relates to conversion practices. This provision was enacted in 2022 after extensive consultation. It is too soon to reconsider the policy on which it was based or to evaluate how it is working in practice.
Process and Timing
The Law Commission expects to publish an Issues Paper in mid-2024 and to provide opportunities for public engagement, including submissions.
The Law Commission anticipates there may be wide interest in this review. Those with a particular interest may include people from the following (overlapping) groups: those who are transgender, non-binary and/or have innate variations of sex characteristics; experts; Māori; women’s groups; rangatahi/young people; and people from Aotearoa New Zealand’s ethnic minority communities.
The Law Commission intends to report to the Minister responsible for the Law Commission by the end of June 2025. It will then be up to the Government whether to accept any recommendations the Commission makes for reform of the law.
The Terms of Reference were originally published on 2 August 2023. They were updated on 25 June 2024 following receipt of a letter from the Minister of Justice requesting that the Commission withdraw issues relating to hate speech from its work programme.
Status: Completed
Issues Paper
Ia Tangata – A review of the protections in the Human Rights Act 1993 for people who are transgender, people who are non-binary and people who have an innate variation of sex characteristics: Issues Paper (NZLC IP53, 2024)
Te Aka Matua o te Ture | Law Commission published an Issues Paper for the review in June 2024. The Issues Paper provided some background and context to the review and identified and explored potential options for reform.
The topics discussed in the Issues Paper include:
- the types of discrimination that can be experienced by people who are transgender or non-binary or who have an innate variation of sex characteristics;
- whether the prohibited grounds of discrimination in section 21 of the Human Rights Act should be amended;
- options for how new prohibited grounds of discrimination could be framed;
- protections in the Human Rights Act relating to areas of life such as: employment; goods, services, facilities and places; land, housing and accommodation; and education;
- protections in the Human Rights Act that apply to government;
- how the exceptions in the Human Rights Act that currently apply to the ground of sex should be worded in the light of any new prohibited grounds of discrimination, and whether any new exceptions are desirable; and
- the perspectives and concerns of Māori.
A summary of the Issues Paper is also available.
The Commission invited submissions on 80 consultation questions posed in the Issues Paper. The submission period closed on 5 September 2024.
Status: Completed
Report
Ia Tangata: Protections in the Human Rights Act 1993 for people who are transgender, people who are non-binary and people with innate variations of sex characteristics (NZLC R150, 2025)
On 11 August 2025, Te Aka Matua o te Ture | Law Commission submitted its report to the Minister of Justice to complete its review of protections in the Human Rights Act 1993 for people who are transgender or non-binary or who have an innate variation of sex characteristics. The report was presented to Parliament on 4 September 2025.
The report contains 27 recommendations for reform. Our central recommendation is that the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination in section 21 of the Human Rights Act should be amended to clarify that the Act covers discrimination that is due to a person being transgender or non-binary or having an innate variation of sex characteristics.
We recommend two new prohibited grounds should be added to section 21:
- Gender identity or its equivalents in the cultures of the person (defined to include gender expression); and
- Having an innate variation of sex characteristics.
We also make recommendations with respect to each of the provisions in the Human Rights Act that allow people to be treated differently based on the ground of sex in certain circumstances (known as sex exceptions). These recommendations outline how each of the sex exceptions should apply to the grounds of gender identity and having an innate variation of sex characteristics.