Madani govt bears burden to accomplish professed ideals

 The Coalition of Malaysian NGOs for the UPR Process (Comango) is “cautiously optimistic” that the Malaysian government will accept all the recommendations proposed by fellow member states during the Fourth Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) for Malaysia which took place on Jan 25 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The UPR is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights record of all 193 UN member states conducted every five years.

It is a process that encourages the country under review to improve the human rights situation through recommendations by their fellow member states.

During the fourth review, the Malaysian government was commended by the international community for some of its efforts to promote human rights on the ground such as the abolishment of the mandatory death penalty and its continuous multi-stakeholder engagement to further improve the tracking of the UPR recommendations.

Comango believes that the government’s actions and efforts to fulfil its obligations to implement the UPR recommendations proposed are a positive step to facilitate better protection and promotion of human rights on the ground.

We are hopeful that the Malaysian government would accept the recommendations proposed by the 134 member states which cover several key themes:

• Acceding to the remaining core human rights treaties

• Eradicating all forms of violence against women and children

• Enabling Malaysian mothers with foreign spouses to confer citizenship onto their overseas-born children

• Halting regressive citizenship amendments

• Ensure the protection of stateless persons and children

• Implementing comprehensive policies that protect the rights of refugees and asylum seekers

• Ensuring full exercise of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly

• Upholding rights of vulnerable groups such as women, children, persons with disabilities, older persons, and indigenous peoples including in contexts of climate change

• Repealing laws and measures that discriminate against LGBTQ+ people, among others.

It is noteworthy that many of these recommendations reflect longstanding human rights obligations and/or violations, which the previous administrations did not commit to addressing in previous UPR cycles.

In some cases, despite full acceptance of recommendations, demonstrated lacklustre progress.

Comango believes that the Madani government under the leadership of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim would demonstrate Malaysia’s commitment to promoting human rights, good governance, and tackling corruption.

Holistic reforms based on transparency, accountability, and democratisation of power are long overdue, and the present administration now bears the burden of proving it can accomplish the ideals it professes to have.

In this context, the concretisation of human rights commitments in the UPR process, via not only acceptance of recommendations but also the development of robust plans with clear timelines to implement these recommendations, is essential.

It is also crucial to solidify the institutionalisation of meetings between Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and government agencies.

These meetings should emphasise not only the importance of the monitoring of the UPR process and the tracking of the recommendations made by states but also its integration into policymaking.

Establishing a formalised framework for regular interactions between CSOs and government entities is critical as a means to actively involve diverse perspectives in shaping policies to reflect the needs of a broader range of stakeholders in the formulation of policies that impact the community at large. - Mkini

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COMANGO was formed by civil society organisations in 2008 to engage in the UN’s UPR. It produces stakeholder reports when Malaysia’s human rights situation is reviewed and prepares mid-term reports to keep tabs on the government’s implementation of recommendations.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.