Listen to UN peers, Comango tells M'sian govt on 6 key rights incl RACE DISCRIMINATION

The government has been urged by its peers in the United Nations to accede to six core international human rights conventions, said a group of NGOs who followed Malaysia's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva last Thursday.

Many countries also asked the government to be specific and give a definite timeline for the accessions, said the Coalition of Malaysian NGOs for the UPR Process (Comango), Jaringan Orang Asal SeMalaysia (JOAS) and the Bar Council in a joint statement last Saturday.

The government was also asked to sign on to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in keeping with its promise in April 2011.

"It will not be easy for the government to ignore these recommendations as they did not only come from western countries but also others in Asia, Africa and Latin America," the NGOs opined.

"Muslim countries such as Egypt, Maldives, Tunisia and Turkey also made this call, obviously seeing no threat to Islam in doing so, in contrast to views from certain Malaysian Muslim NGOs."

Racial discrimination, civil & political rights

The six conventions Malaysia has yet to accede to are on racial discrimination, civil and political rights, torture, migrant workers, and protection of all persons from enforced disappearance.

The NGOs also noted a good cross-section of countries that called for, among others, a moratorium on the use of the death penalty towards its abolition.

Further, a common thread in the recommendations was the need for the government to engage more with international human rights mechanisms, including the system of special procedures and special rapporteurs.

"As a current member of the Human Rights Council, Malaysia's rate of cooperation with the special procedures and special rapporteurs...leaves much to be desired," they said.

Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), who also observed the process in Geneva, urged the government to adopt "constructive and practical recommendations" to prepare Malaysia for the next UPR in 2018, as it nears the status of a "developed nation".