Grant BayldonGrant Bayldon

Grant Bayldon is the National Director of World Vision New Zealand, leading the organisation’ development and humanitarian work in more than 25 countries as well as fundraising and advocacy work in New Zealand.

Tough choices ahead for Syrian refugees effectively barred from NZ

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New Zealanders have shown they care about the terrible situation refugees have found themselves in. But for so many people languishing in camps, they currently have no chance at all to make it here, writes national director of World Vision New Zealand Grant Bayldon. As we sit on cushions inside Khelfa’s plastic tent drinking thick black … Read more

Seeking asylum is a legal right. Could somebody tell Mike Hosking?

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Mike Hosking has made another big mistake, this time on the UN’s refugee convention. Amnesty International New Zealand’s Grant Bayldon gives him a lesson in international law.  In alarming misrepresentation of international law in today’s Mike’s Minute, Mike Hosking has applauded the Australian prime minister’s rejection of New Zealand’s offer to help resettle refugees from offshore … Read more

The KiwiSaver U-turn shows what happens when you piss NZers off. Don’t stop being pissed off yet

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Rapid divestment decisions by funds with money in nuclear weapons, landmines and cluster bombs is a credit to people power. But the battle is far from over, writes Grant Bayldon If you like a good David and Goliath story, you’re in luck. News broke in August that millions of New Zealanders had unwittingly invested in … Read more

Not ‘a big enough issue’? Why inaction on KiwiSaver and cluster bombs is a betrayal of NZ values

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NZ has been a world leader in eradication of cluster bombs, landmines and nuclear weapons. Where today are the moral principles the National government has shown before, asks Amnesty International’s Grant Bayldon. On the 16th of April this year, in a village in Yemen 10 kilometres from the Saudi border, two brothers aged 9 and … Read more

On Australia’s human rights shame, New Zealand is all but silent. Here’s what we need to hear

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We have rarely seen such a sustained, and successful, attempt to hide abuses from the outside world as the Australian government is perpetuating right now in its ‘offshore detention’ policy, writes Amnesty International’s Grant Bayldon There is a basic principle of human rights work: when lawyers, families, journalists, doctors and official monitors are prevented from … Read more

Justifying a meagre refugee quota because of the homeless problem is a terrible, terrible argument

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Charity may start at home, but it shouldn’t stop there, writes Amnesty International’s Grant Bayldon I spent a recent chilly Thursday night sleeping in the car with my son at Mangere Town Centre. It was the Park Up For Homes event, raising awareness of local homelessness. I can’t pretend it was a great hardship for … Read more

The only serious question on a China extradition deal is how to say no

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Opinion: John Key says he’s open to China’s request for an extradition treaty and has asked the Law Commission to investigate. But we’ve been monitoring the Chinese justice system for years already, and the moral answer couldn’t be clearer, writes Amnesty International’s Grant Bayldon. In 2013 a woman named Liu Ping dared to challenge the … Read more

You say tax haven, I say corruption port. Welcome to New Zealand

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Opinion: NZ’s ranking as one of the least corrupt countries in the world counts for nothing if our good reputation is used to aid corruption elsewhere, writes Amnesty International’s Grant Bayldon My daughter returned home with from seeing Romeo and Juliet at Auckland Pop-up Globe the other night quoting one of Shakespeare’s famous lines: “What’s … Read more