Harassment Act 1997

The Harassment Act of New Zealand (the “HA”) provides protection to victims of harassment by making the most serious types of harassment criminal offenses, empowering courts to make orders to protect victims of harassment who are not covered by family violence legislation and providing effective sanctions for breaches of criminal and civil laws relating to harassment. Harassment is defined to mean a pattern of behavior that is directed against another person, being any “specified act” to the other person on at least 2 separate occasions within a period of 12 months. A “specified act” is acting in a way that causes that person to fear for their safety (and a reasonable person in that situation would fear for their safety). Specified acts include watching or loitering near a person’s place of residence, business, employment, following or stopping a person, interfering with a person’s property and giving offensive material to a person. The HA recognizes that acts which may seem innocent when viewed as a one-off incident may be harassment when viewed in context of a pattern of behavior. The HA recognizes two broad types of harassment: criminal harassment and civil harassment. The most serious cases of harassment are criminal offenses and can attract an imprisonment sentence of up to 2 years, where the perpetrator intends that harassment to cause the victim to fear for their safety, or where the perpetrator knows the harassment is likely to cause the victim, given their circumstances, to fear for their safety. For civil harassment, a person who has been (or is being) harassed can apply to the District Court for a restraining order, which in general terms will order the person to not do, threaten or encourage another person to do any specified act. The Court can decide on the duration and conditions of a restraining order, whether to vary or discharge the restraining order and whether the Court proceedings should be restricted from publication. Any person may apply to the Court to have the restraining order renewed or reviewed. A party affected by a decision to make or refuse to make an order may appeal to the High Court against the decision. It is a criminal offense to contravene a restraining order which can attract a prison sentence of up to 6 months, or up to 2 years if the perpetrator has in the previous 3 years been convicted of offenses in respect of the same restraining order, or another restraining order made for the benefit of the same person (where the offenses had a potential sentence of up to 2 years). 

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  • 2021

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