Saturday, October 4, 2008

Human Rights: Where do we stand

On 10th December 1948,the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR). The Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories." Malaysia is a member of the United Nations and therefore has full knowledge of this declaration.

Although UDHR is not a treaty and has no enforcement procedures, it has become a very important yardstick for countries to ensure basic human rights are afforded to their citizens.

By just reading the UDHR for the first time, you will see that Malaysia has violated the preamble and certain Articles in the UDHR. Of course if you ask our politicians about it, they would say " its not a law lah, it only a declaration.... not important la".

The recent act of the Government utilizing the ISA is a clear contravention of Article 3, 5, 9, and 10 of the UDHR. Article 3 stated that everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person, Article 5 states that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Article 9 states that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile and Article 10 states that everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

The government had clearly disregarded an international declaration of Human Rights for their own political agendas. This, in the eyes of foreign investors, would not look good and it is not surprising that for the first time there has been an outflow of Foreign Direct Investment rather than inflow. I believe that there is a link between foreign investment and our human rights record.

We also have a huge human trafficking problem mainly children trafficking that the government has failed to address. The recent enactment of the Anti Trafficking in Persons Act 2007 is a step forward but sadly the enforcement on it has been disappointing. We have no laws against child pornography specifically and no laws against child sex tourism. The street children issues in Chow Kit are not being addressed and syndicates go on selling children for money and child labour. There are no steps to eradicate child prostitution and child trafficking.

They is much pressure on the government now as we have to report on a National Action Plan to the Eradication of Child Prostitution And Trafficking (ECPAT) congress on the 24th November 2008 in Brazil. Malaysia has to inform the congress on steps we have taken to eradicate child prostitution and trafficking and word has it that we are not even ready with the report. Not even the first draft! We are also due to report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in February 2009.

We don't realize how questionable our human rights record is when we are busy with our daily lives. We have a problem and the government is taking it too lightly and I don't think we can get a bail out on this issue. Where do we stand in terms of Human Rights? You decide.