Suhakam: A human right body that has no right
When Suruhanjaya Hak Asasi Manusia (Suhakam) was formed by the Malaysian Government 10 years ago, a lot of Malaysians were hopeful. Although many were sceptical on its ability to function due to its limited power, at least there was an organization which could help fight for human rights in Malaysia.
10 years after, Suhakam proved to be almost a total failure despite having done a lot during the last 10 years. It has done a lot of things but had achieved nothing. What a sorry state of a human right body which has no right even to fight for itself.
Suhakam had made many recommendations to the government but almost all of them, especially those related to the real improvement of human rights were simply not acted upon by the government, confirming the fear that Suhakam was just a window dressing or shadow play by the government to silence critics that it does not care about human rights.
Consequently, for this year’s Malaysian Human Rights Commission’s (Suhakam) 10th anniversary, 42 NGOs had staged a temporary boycott by not celebrating the 10th anniversary, which serves to highlight three key concerns:
* Suhakam’s failure to proactively protect and promote human rights,
* The government’s failure to ensure Suhakam’s independence and effectiveness and;
* The government failure to implement most of Suhakam’s recommendations.[...]The boycott comes at a time when Suhakam is under threat of being downgraded from its ‘A’ status by United Nation’s Accreditation Sub-Committee of the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights (ICC).
Though the government scrambled to amend laws to comply with the ICC requirements, civil society groups were quick to point out that only superficial changes were made and reforms were still wanting.
The ICC is expected to decide on the matter by November.
Source: Malaysiakini
At this rate, I am pretty sure Suhakam will be downgraded but that will only embarrass ordinary, peace loving Malaysians more than it would the government.
