The Human Rights Party is a small political party in New Zealand. It focuses on what it sees as social justice, believing that insufficient emphasis is placed on people's economic, social and cultural rights. The party believes that liberals are in error by pursuing only civil and political freedoms, saying that without a just society, the disadvantaged cannot exercise these freedoms.
In the 2002 elections, the Human Rights Party stood one candidate, Anthony van den Heuvel. He won 66 votes. In the 2005 elections, van den Heuvel stood again, and was joined by Anthony Ravlich. The two gained a total of 66 votes between them. In the 2008 election, the party stood three candidates, gaining 222 votes. One of its candidates, Anthony Ravlich, was subsequently convicted and fined $200 for refusing to file the required return of electoral expenses
The party contested the 2009 Mt Albert by-election, gaining 13 votes.
The party is standing a single candidate in the 2011 election: Anthony van den Heuvel in Auckland Central.
Famous quotes containing the words human, rights and/or party:
“All grandeur, all power, all subordination to authority rests on the executioner: he is the horror and the bond of human association. Remove this incomprehensible agent from the world and at that very moment order gives way to chaos, thrones topple and society disappears.”
—Joseph De Maistre (1753–1821)
“Quite often ... these little guys, who might be making atomic weapons or who might be guilty of some human rights violation ... are looking for someone to listen to their problems and help them communicate.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“The success of a party means little more than that the Nation is using the party for a large and definite purpose.... It seeks to use and interpret a change in its own plans and point of view.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)