Suhakam needs more legal bite, says civil society

(The Star) – The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) needs to be given more bite to address weaknesses in Malaysia, said Human Rights Movement (Proham) secretary-general Datuk Dr Denison Jayasoona.

Denison, who spoke at the Proham-organised discussion entitled “Human rights priorities for Malaysia beyond 2013 UPR to 2018” said the annual Suhakam report should be debated in Parliament and not ignored. 

“We cannot run away from that after spending millions of Ringgit in producing the report – you cannot allow Suhakam to be abused politically.

“We should respect it as it has legislation supporting it. Its report has to be debated in Parliament,” said Denison.

Denison called for the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Act 1999 to be strengthened and for a Parliamentary Select Committee to be set up to monitor human rights issues in Malaysia. 

“There should be something that looks at the implementation of human rights decisions and monitors their progress.

“The Government should amend the Suhakam legislation to provide for a Human Rights Court. Such a court is needed for Suhakam to have the bite and penalise people who have violated and abused human rights,” said Denison. 

He added that a Human Rights Action or Human Rights Transformation Blueprint was needed, saying that Suhakam had proposed such a blueprint in 2001, and had even prepared a draft of it.

“Human rights are good for all people. No-one needs to fear it. Only abusers of human rights need to fear it – these rights are good for all races and communities. And you cannot say that the United Nations Conventions on human rights are against Islam as all the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) countries have ratified them,” added Denison.

He called on the government to ratify the Conventions, pointing out that out of the nine conventions, Malaysia had only ratified three Conventions, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

“We cannot go on not ratifying these Conventions. We are embarrassingly behind the Asean and OIC countries. Ratification is fundamental, the core instruments of social, cultural and economic rights have to be ratified. We have signed some declarations,” said Denison.

Similar views were given by Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) chief executive officer Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, as he also called for Suhakam to be given more bite. 

“Suhakam reports have to be debated in Parliament and a Parliamentary Select Committee needs to be set up focused on human rights, the formulation of the National Human Rights Action plan and amendments to the relevant Act have to be made to allow Suhakam to have powers of investigation and enforcement,” said Saifuddin.

He also called for the UN Conventions to be ratified by the Malaysian Government.

“Some technical committees have been established to examine the Conventions but we are hoping to see the results before 2018, which is when the third United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review is.

“We understand ratifying these Conventions is a symbolic effort by governments but not ratifying it actually puts Malaysia among the bottom ten countries in the United Nations,” said Saifuddin. 

At the last Universal Periodic Review on Oct 24, Malaysia received 249 recommendations to ratify the Conventions and other Treaties – some of them being the International Convention Against All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights, and the UN Convention Against Torture.

Meanwhile, Former UN coordination specialist Dr Lim Mui Kiang pointed out that Malaysia’s international standing was poor when it came to ratifying UN human rights Treaties and Conventions.

“Malaysia’s standing among the UN member states is quite dismal. In the Asean region, it ranks eighth out of the ten member states, and in the Non-Aligned Movement, Malaysia is ranked 108 out of a total 110 countries, in the OIC sphere it ranks at 55th place out of a total 55 members, and in the Commonwealth it is ranked at 49th place out of 54 countries,” she said. 

Lim pointed out that in 2010, the then Deputy Foreign Minister, Senator A Kohilan Pillay announced the government had set up a technical committee to look into the ratification of the human rights treaties.

“But until now there has been no progress. In 2012, the legal division of the Prime Minister’s Department initiated meetings for the drafting of the Human Rights Action Plan, but that too has not moved,” she said.