The DAP will move a censure motion in Parliament next week against Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, as the minister responsible for human rights, to ensure that Malaysia complies with international commitments to protect human rights.

Party chairperson Lim Kit Siang said calls for the government to formulate a national action plan for human rights have fallen on deaf ears.

He added that in December 1998, he had criticized the government in parliament for failing to live up to its international commitments on human rights, in particular the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (VDPA) adopted by the 1993 World Human Rights conference.

"The national plans of action are one outcome of the conference and in the past nine years there had been steady progress in most countries except for Malaysia where such a concept is still totally alien to the government," Lim said.

These international commitments were adopted by the 1993 Human Rights Conference binding on the 171 United Nations member states, including Malaysia.

The Malaysian Human Rights Commission or Suhakam was established in 2000 but Lim said it is facing "a grave crisis of confidence and credibility as illustrated by the 100-day boycott by leading non-governmental organisations".

Lim said Malaysia has been "stranded in international human rights development as a country which is not even thinking about developing a national action plan", nine years after the VDPA.

"Syed Hamid should bear full responsibility for this gross failure by Malaysia to live up to our international human rights commitment as he has been foreign minister for more than three years and has done nothing in this direction," he added.

Parliament session begins on Monday.