Coming to terms with best practices for handling those who have committed sexual offenses isn’t just an American issue, it’s a global issue. As governments around the world debate how to move forward, we would like to highlight this speech given by Golriz Ghahraman to the New Zealand Parliament about the legal challenges and human rights abuses that come with the sex offender registry.
Ghahraman said: “Children and young people are most often abused, in terms of the types of offending that this piece of legislation encompasses, by those who are very well known to them, in their own homes. They are very rarely abused by strangers,” she said.
“These registers have existed and been applied in other jurisdictions for many years. It’s a measure that we’ve taken… It’s neither here nor there, I guess we could say, if there’s no evidence that it works.
“To persist with it, to lie to ourselves, to lie to victims and the public and say that we’re doing something that is essential to protecting children and young people, whilst we weaken the rule of law as a Parliament is, I would say, unacceptable.”
