Race Relations Commissioner Dr Melissa Derby has updated a key statement about religious diversity in New Zealand, the first overhaul of the document in nearly seven years, according to RNZ.

The Statement on Religious Diversity was first released in 2007 by the Human Rights Commission (Te Kāhui Tika Tangata). This time, Derby revised it after talking with religious and faith groups across the country. The updated version includes a foreword from the Prime Minister — something the original lacked, and a sign the government sees this as important.

Derby put it simply: "Diversity does not need to be a source of division for the rest of us." She said the update was necessary because of a recent rise in race-based attacks on religious people, both online and offline. Faith communities had contacted her with real concerns about their safety, not vague worries but specific incidents.

The country's religious picture has changed a lot since 2007. The 2023 Census found that 51.6% of New Zealanders said they had no religion — the first time that group made up more than half the population. This matters for the statement's audience: it now addresses a majority without faith, and also smaller faith communities who say they feel under threat.

The heart of the policy problem is this gap. One side has secularised — no religion — while the other has religious minorities who feel exposed to hostility. The updated statement tries to speak to both. Derby's message that diversity need not cause division is aimed at people who are hostile to religious minorities, and at the wider public, asking them to protect the space for faith.

A document like this statement is not a law. It carries weight through what officials and society accept as the right way to do things, not through court enforcement. Because the Prime Minister wrote a foreword, it now carries more clout than a Human Rights Commission position paper would alone. That gives Derby more leverage when she talks to government agencies, employers, or councils about how they treat religious minorities. Whether the statement actually changes how people behave is another question — the statement itself cannot force that change.

The near-seven-year gap since the last update is striking. Much has happened: the 15 March 2019 mosque attacks in Ōtautahi Christchurch, ongoing religiously motivated online harassment, and the 2023 Census showing the shift to secularism. The fact that Derby consulted widely rather than simply revising the document behind closed doors suggests the Commission grounded the update in what communities actually said they needed, not what officials guessed.