Final report available on the World Wide Web in PDF format.

The report provides an international human rights framework for understanding and responding to violence against women and children (including the "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women", 1979, and the "United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child", 1989, reporting requirements). It outlines the current legal framework and policy context within New Zealand, and summarises the current situation with reference to government statistics and recent research. Drawing on the submissions to the Hearing, the report goes on to highlight what is working well in terms of responding to and preventing violence against women and children (for example, successful programmes in schools), and lists what needs to change. Recommendations from the New Zealand Parliamentarian's Group on Population and Development to other Members of Parliament conclude the report. These recommendations call for: work on changing societal attitudes to violence; keeping a gendered perspective of family violence; local community ownership of programmes and the involvement of men and boys in violence prevention; a review the effectiveness of protection orders; building on existing programmes and strategies, rather than developing new strategies; resourcing cross-sectoral collaboration and coordination of agencies; workforce development of the voluntary and community sector; recognition of the knowledge in the community sector; a consistent model for developing, funding, monitoring and auditing services; the collation of national statistics about the incidence of violence against women and children; and family violence death reviews. The report will be used by the Ministry of Women's Affairs for the 2006 CEDAW report.