25th Session of the UN Human Rights Council
Item 6
General Debate
Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review of Malaysia
Thank you Mr. President,
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation and Pusat Komas, a member of COMANGO-Coalition of Malaysian NGOs for UPR, an organization which works to promote huamn rights in Malaysia, welcome the UPR Report on Malaysia which includes a number of positive recommendations to create a more enabling environment for civil society. However, we maintain deeply concern about the government’s refusal to substantively engage with independent national civil society groups as well as the continued harassment of civil society organizations for inputting into the UPR process.
Mr President, on several of occasions, the Malaysia delegation has affirmed its commitment to working “in consultation with civil society stakeholders” to ensure that the national UPR process is both inclusive and transparent.1 However, such statements are severally undermined by the government’s flagrant exclusion of civil society including the repeated rejection of requests for meetings by the Coalition of Malaysian NGOs for UPR (COMANGO).
Moreover, independent civil society groups, including COMANGO, who have contributed to UPR process has been subjected to severe and groundless harassment. On 8th January 2014, the Home Ministry of Malaysia issued a statement “deeming COMANGO illegal” under hollow claims that it is not a registered body. The use of such unwarranted administration hurdles to silence COMANGO, which raised a number of sensitive issues such as LGBTI rights and freedom of religion in its UPR Submission, is deeply concerning.
Mr President, this trend has been further exacerbated by a number of non-state agencies with the support of pro-government institutions which have joined the chorus of attacks on COMANGO since 2013. These groups have accused a number of independent human rights NGOs of being anti-Islamic, anti-constitution and anti-nationalist for criticizing government policy in their UPR submissions. It is alarming that the government has refused to condemn these attacks and further disseminated them through national media outlets.
We strongly urge the Government of Malaysia to cease all further harassment of COMANGO and other independent civil society groups for participating in the UPR, while ensuring that a wide range of civil society organizations are supported to take part in the UPR process including ensuring effective implementation of all recommendations.
Thank you for your attention.
Read by : Jerald Joseph
1 United Nations :A/HRC/25/10/Add.1