The Human Rights Commission says it is seeing high levels of psychological harm caused by the aftermath of the Canterbury earthquakes.
The Commission has made 33 recommendations to improve access to adequate housing, health services and help business make a positive contribution to human rights.
Chief Commissioner David Rutherford says the Canterbury earthquakes represent one of New Zealand's greatest contemporary human rights challenges and people and their human rights need to be put at the heart of the recovery.
Meanwhile, two advocacy groups have lodged a formal complaint with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development about human rights violations they say the Government has committed since the earthquakes.
WeCan and CanCERN say they've received 100 complaints from the community that they will present to the OECD.
The groups recently conducted a doorknock of 774 homes in the Southshore and South Brighton communities, and found about 11 per cent of households are still living in broken housing and are suffering poor health and stress dealing with insurance companies.