11 February 2009, Geneva
Press Statement
Malaysia’s
First UPR: Too Much Praise, Too Little Progress
The
United Nations Human Rights Council conducted its inaugural review of Malaysia’s human rights record today. At
the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), Malaysia’s national report was
presented by Tan Sri Rastam Mohd Isa, Secretary General of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. The Attorney General, Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Patail, and Datuk
Faizah Tahir, Secretary General of the Ministry of Women, Family and Community
Development made additional statements. Representatives of non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) from the Coalition of Malaysian Non-Governmental
Organisations in the UPR Process (COMANGO), and the Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia
(JOAS) were present. Representatives of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia
(SUHAKAM) also attended.
The
UPR process compels the government to critically assess Malaysia’s human rights record, in
consultation with SUHAKAM and NGOs. However, the consultation with NGOs has
been superficial, patchy and cursory.
Malaysia’s presentation during the
review today described some of its successes without acknowledging any
shortcomings. The government highlighted the overall reduction of poverty but
failed to address the increase in income disparity, e.g. within the Bumiputra community.
Malaysia also made some inaccurate
statements. “The government claimed that the rights of indigenous peoples were
well protected under existing legislation. Mexico and Qatar correctly raised the issue of
the rights of indigenous peoples which needs better protection. I urge the
government to accept Mexico’s recommendation to ratify
the ILO Convention No. 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in
Independent Countries. I am also disappointed that the government only
mentioned Orang Asli and the Penans thus leaving out the other indigenous
groups in Sabah and Sarawak,” said Mark Bujang of JOAS.
According to Giyoun Kim, UN Advocacy programme manager of the Asian Forum of
Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), “With all the several country visit
requests made by the Special Procedures mandate holders since 2002, the
Malaysian Government only repeated its rhetoric excuses that it remains open to
further discussions and is willing to consider the requests positively on the
merit of each proposal. It is very regrettable that the government did not
provide any commitment to declare the standing invitations to these mandate
holders to visit Malaysia, as encouraged by several
countries.”
“For
today’s review, foreign missions began lining up at 5.45am to register to speak. 83
countries eventually registered, but due to time constraints only 60 were able
to speak. Out of these 60 countries, 44 were members of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Organisation of the Islamic Conference
(OIC), and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). This highlights one of the
weaknesses of the UPR process. Countries ‘friendly’ to Malaysia were able to manipulate the
process simply by queuing up early and crowding-out other countries from an
opportunity to speak. Many ‘friendly’ countries congratulated Malaysia on her national report,
particularly in the areas of poverty eradication, primary education, and the
enhancement of the rights of women, children and the persons with disabilities,
without giving substantive recommendations,” said Andrew Khoo, co-deputy
chairperson of the Human Rights Committee of the Malaysia Bar.
Commenting on today’s proceedings, John Liu of SUARAM,
co-secretariat of COMANGO said, “The review on Malaysia was extremely disappointing.
While acknowledging the efforts of some countries in raising genuine concerns
and addressing the critical human rights issues in Malaysia, the congratulatory-styled
interventions in praise of Malaysia were a farcical element of
the review. This practice goes totally against the intended spirit of the UPR.”
Despite
this weakness, some countries did use the opportunity to ask relevant questions
and made the following recommendations:
1. specify a time-frame to ratify the core
human rights treaties including the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination (CERD) and the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and the optional
protocols;
2. specify the
time-frame to withdraw the reservations to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child (CRC) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and to ratify the optional protocols;
3. abolish the
Internal Security Act (ISA) 1960 and other preventive detention legislation;
4. initiate a
moratorium on the use of the death penalty as a precursor to its eventual
abolition and outlaw the practice of torture and cruel and inhumane punishment,
including whipping;
5. legislate to
recognise the status of refugees and asylum-seekers and to distinguish them
from irregular migrants, and ratify the Convention on the Status of Refugees and
its Protocol;
6. better protect
and give immunity to trafficked women and children instead of treating them as
perpetrators;
7. increase the
protection for all migrant workers, regardless of legal status, and ratify the International
Covenant on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of
Their Families (ICMW);
8. implement the recommendations of the
Royal Commission on the Police to establish an independent oversight mechanism
for the Police; increase training for government officials, police, law enforcement
and security agencies, lawyers, and judges, in respect of human rights and
non-discrimination and the binding nature of international human rights laws;
9. make SUHAKAM independent, widen its
term of reference to cover all rights within the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, and have it comply with the Paris Principles; and
10. de-criminalise sexual acts associated
with a person’s sexual orientation by amending the Penal Code.
“As the next step, we will seek to meet the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs to discuss the follow-up of the review’s draft report. We hope
to persuade the government to make more commitments and to state the time-frame
for them to be implemented. This can be done during the formal adoption of the outcome
report in the June plenary session of the Human Rights Council,” said Honey Tan
of EMPOWER, co-secretariat of COMANGO. She adds, “We will also be holding a
briefing for Members of Parliament and diplomatic missions in Malaysia shortly to update them on the
review. We will hold the government accountable for the commitments it has made
to improve the state of human rights in Malaysia.”
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Contact persons:
John
Liu (SUARAM) +60 19 3622679, yn_tynn@yahoo.com
Honey
Tan (EMPOWER) +60 16 4100402, honeytan@gmail.com
Andrew
Khoo (Human Rights Committee, Malaysian Bar) +60 12 3730500, andrew_khoo@akdl.com
Mark
Bujang (JOAS) +60 14 8776685, markbujang@gmail.com
Giyoun
Kim (FORUM-ASIA) +41 79 5957931, una@forum-asia.org
