Anti ISA Movement UK
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SEE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE HERE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rJRGUzV4ZE
Last week,the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) of the UN Human Rights Council completed a mission to Malaysia. This visit was the first of its kind and in its closing statement the WGAD called for a repeal of the Internal Security Act, Emergency Ordinance, Dangerous Drugs Act and Restricted Residence Act in accordance with article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“The Working Group is seriously concerned about the Preventive Laws in force in Malaysia, mainly: The Internal Security Act (ISA) 1960; the Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) Ordinance; the Dangerous Drugs (Special Preventive Measures) Act and the Restricted Residence Act. These laws establish investigative detention to prevent a suspect from fleeing, destroying evidence or preventing him or her from committing a future crime. These laws deny the detainee the right to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, consecrated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other principles of international customary law. They also severely restrict detainees’ access to legal counsel.
These Preventive Laws allow State institutions, particularly the Police and the Attorney General’s Office, to elude the normal penal procedure for common crimes and offences. They also give the Minister of Home Affairs excessive powers to keep people in detention indefinitely, without the need to sustain evidence in court or to prove criminal responsibility. In the detention centres reserved for detainees under these laws, the delegation found people charged with common offences which should in principle be treated under the regular penal procedure.
The ISA allows the Police to arrest people without a judicial arrest warrant and hold them for up to 60 days in special police remand centres. People can be held in detention during this period without the right to see their relatives or legal counsel and without being taken before a judicial court, resulting in incommunicado detention. Afterwards, the Minister of Home Affairs may authorize further detention for up to two years, a period which may be extended for an unlimited number of times. Once released, detainees are often subjected to restricted conditions, usually limiting freedom of residence in the national territory, freedom of travel inside and outside the country and even freedom of opinion, expression and association.
Additionally, virtually all detainees interviewed, especially those detained under the preventive laws, indicated that they had been subjected to torture or ill-treatment in order to obtain confessions or evidence in police detention. This is facilitated by the fact that many are held in incommunicado detention, at least initially.
The Government justifies the need for these laws based on its obligation to guarantee national security and the security of its citizens. Nevertheless, detention without trial and without charges, for flexible and extendable term limits, at the will of the authorities, affects not only the rights to personal freedom, free trial and presumption of innocence, but also the right to security of person,which guarantees the right to liberty for all persons if they have not committed any crime.”
The Federal government has once again promised to debate amendments to the Internal Security Act in parliament next month. Let’s keep the pressure on and remind the Malaysian government that the world is watching and human rights abuses in Malaysia must be brought to an immediate end. We will also be calling on the Malaysian government to sign the UN Convention Against Torture in conjunction with International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
