KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 — The Coalition of Malaysian NGOs in the UPR Process (Comango) expressed hope that Malaysia would accept recommendations made to it during last night’s fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) despite non-committal responses from some government representatives.
The recommendations were on issues including gender equality in citizenship laws for children born to foreign parents, freedom of speech, assembly and association to protecting Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) persons.
“I think the next step is the Malaysian government should accept those recommendations because those are really critical recommendations for the current state of human rights situation,” Pusat Komas programme director Ryan Chua, who is also leading Comango’s secretariat alongside Suara Rakyat Malaysia’s (Suaram) Jernell Tan Chia Ee, told Malay Mail.
“Most of them were already given the previous cycle. So, if the Malaysian government wants to promote what they mention the Madani framework then this would be the best time for them to show them how different is this Madani government from the previous governments.”
However, Chua also said there were apparent inconsistencies in the government’s replies to some of the recommendations, which would require clarification to avoid confusion.
Among these included a government representative claiming that refugees were burdening Malaysia’s universal healthcare system, Chua said.
“The refugees have healthcare access but it's not (borne) by the government, they have to pay four times more as compared to an ordinary person.
“All those are not articulated very well, so it can create confusion,” he said.
Suaram’s Sevan Doraisamy also said the home minister did not join any of the engagement sessions stakeholders held with the government all of last year.
Comango is a coalition of 46 NGOs established in 2008 to utilise the UPR mechanism to advocate for human rights in Malaysia.
It submitted its joint stakeholder report to the UN in July last year covering four thematic areas for the fourth UPR cycle that took place yesterday, namely on national institutions, law and policy measures, equality and non-discrimination, civil and political rights and economic, societal and cultural rights.