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The Cook Islands are 15 small islands scattered over 2 million km squared of the South Pacific.〔European Commission: Development and Cooperation- Europe Aid Cook Islands ()〕 According to the latest census, the nation has a total population of approximately 18,000 people.〔(Cook Islands Government Online )〕 Spread in population between the mainland capital, Rarotonga, and the Outer Islands mean inequality in terms of delivery of public services. Internal migration between Rarotonga and the Outer Islands is relatively high due to lack of schooling and employment opportunities, and increased living standards and availability of medical and educational services in Rarotonga.〔Buchanan-Aruwafu, H “An Integrated Picture: HIV Risk and Vulnerability in the Pacific: Research gaps, priorities and approaches” (February 2007). Noumea, SPC at p 11 ()〕 The Cook Islands are a state in free association with New Zealand since 1965, and has the power to legislate its own laws and enter into international human rights instruments of its own accord.〔(Cook Islands Government Online: Parliament )〕 The country has a Westminster parliamentary system that is democratically elected. Rights are generally well respected, as provided for in the 1965 Constitution, but a number of issues still exist. These include the limitations that remain upon legislated rights and freedoms, political participation, women’s rights, the rights of sexual minorities, and limits on freedom of religion. ==International Human Rights Obligations== The Cook Islands is not a sovereign nation, and therefore not a member state of the United Nations. Since 1988, treaties signed by the Government of New Zealand do not extend to the Cook Islands unless expressly stated. Prior to this, New Zealand treaty action extended the application of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its first Optional Protocol, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), to the Cook Islands.〔New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade: New Zealand National Universal Periodic Review Report (9 April 2009) at p5 ()〕 It is of note that the Cook Islands are yet to ratify in its own right seven of the nine core human rights treaties. The two instruments to be ratified by the country since 1988 include the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1997, and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 2006. The Cook Islands has also ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Human rights in the Cook Islands」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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