More than a dozen reasons for the censure motion against Hamid Albar for  his failures as Minister responsible for human rights

(Penang,  Sunday): I announced in Penang yesterday that DAP  will  move a censure motion in Parliament against the Foreign Minister Datuk  Seri Syed Hamid Albar,  as the Minister responsible for human rights, for his failures  to ensure that Malaysia complies with the  international commitments  to  promote and protect human rights. 

I referred specifically to Hamid’s failure in his three-and-a-half years as the Minister responsible for human rights to take the initiatives to develop a comprehensive, effective and sustainable action plan for  human rights, including strategies for the implementation and national evaluation of the plan. 

As a result, nine years after the 1993 World Human Rights Conference which adopted by Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (VDPA) to give  birth to the concept of national human rights action plans,  Malaysia has become one country where the concept is completely alien to the government and strange to Malaysians while other countries have forged ahead to fulfil their VDPA commitments, adopting and implementing or in the process of developing their action plans. 

It is an  indictment of the government’s total lack of seriousness in establishing a culture of respect for human rights in the  Malaysian society as a whole and in particular among those who have responsibilities relating to human rights, for example, the judiciary, the police and government officials that Hamid had not even taken the first step to establish a broadbased national co-ordinating committee with full participation by the civil society, especially the leading NGOs on human rights, to develop a national action plan for human rights. 

Apart from the issue of  national human rights action plan, there are over a dozen reasons to justify a censure motion in Parliament against Hamid for his failures as the Minister responsible for human rights, which include: 

• The hijacking of Suhakam’s statutory function to present an annual report to Parliament at the first meeting of the year by insisting that the Suhakam Annual Report 2001 be referred to the Foreign Ministry for onward transmission. Result: breach by Suhakam of its statutory duty to present its second Annual Report 2001 at  the last meeting of Parliament in March/April this  year.  The Suhakam annual  report should be the most timely, comprehensive and authoritative report on the human rights situation in the country and it is most ridiculous that it should be a Johnny-come-lately, long after reports on Malaysia have been released by international human rights watchdog organizations,  like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch or even by foreign governments such as the annual country-by-country human rights survey by the United States State Department.
• Failure to present a government memorandum to accompany  the first Suhakam annual report 2000 when tabled in  Parliament in April last year to state the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations of Suhakam and for the non-acceptance of the recommendations, if any.  There is no indication that the second Suhakam annual report 2001 will be accompanied by such a government memorandum when it is tabled in Parliament tomorrow, although the Foreign Ministry had been sitting on the report for months.
• Failure to ensure that the police and other relevant government agencies  acted on various Suhakam reports, in particular the reports on freedom of assembly and the Kesas Highway Inquiry.
• Government failure to ratify the core international human rights instruments, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR),  the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights  (CESCR) and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) despite the specific recommendations of Suhakam in its first annual report.  On 15^th July 1999, when introducing the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Bill in Parliament, Hamid reported that  Malaysia had only ratified five out of 25 major United Nations human rights instruments and that “the Government is considering the other 19 instruments”.  Three years have passed and Hamid has nothing to show in ensuring that the government fulfils its international human rights commitments in ratifying the other 19 instruments.
• Keeping under “lock and key” the Suhakam proposals for amendments to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Act to ensure that it is more  effective in the discharge of its statutory duties to protect and promote human rights.
• Breach of the Paris Principles to recognize the “fundamental role” played by NGOs in expanding the work of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights by the highly objectionable process in the appointment of Suhakam Commissioners, resulting in the 100-day protest and disengagement with Suhakam by the leading NGOs on human rights.
• The failure to take the initiative to establish an all-party Parliamentary Standing Committee to examine Suhakam reports and make recommendations to Parlaiment.
• The failure to ensure that time is allocated for special parliamentary debates to be held on every Suhakam report to highlight the seriousness and importance of the national commitment to fulfil international commitments to promote and protect human rights.
• The biggest indictment for Hamid as the Minister responsible for human rights in the past three-and-a-half years is the worsening of the human rights situation in the past 15 months and in particular after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

(16/6/2002)