Suhakam's two-day roundtable dialogue on children's rights ended with recommendations that the government withdraws our eight existing reservations on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Conference discussants, who broke into six working groups, developed recommendations on how to implement key articles in the Child Convention - as the UN treaty is better known - such as the right to life, right to development and education, right to protection, and the right to participation.

But the most interesting recommendations came from working groups tasked to compare domestic laws such as the Child Act 2001 and the justice system, to the principles of the UN convention.

During presentations this afternoon, participants said there was "no reason why Malaysia should not withdraw its reservations" over what many consider as "basic human rights principles" embodied in the convention.

The conference outcome is in clear contrast to the early warning made in the opening speech by National Unity and Social Development Minister Dr Siti Zaharah Sulaiman to "remember that national laws and policies are superior (over international obligations)".

The eight articles, among others, defines a child as under 18 years of age; guarantees equal treatment irrespective of race, religion, status, etc; spells out the right of every child to nationality; provides for freedom of speech and expression; the right to free association and peaceful assembly; the right to free compulsory education; and protection from capital punishment or life sentence without parole for children under 18.

Existing laws

Existing domestic laws such as the Age of Majority Act and the Child Act already acknowledges a child as below 18 years old, while the Federal Constitution already provides for freedoms of speech, expression, association and assembly, said the working group.

In addition, the recently amended Education Act, though not in force yet, already provides for free compulsory primary education, while the Child Act is against the death penalty, life sentence, and ensures their arrest and detention is of last resort and for the shortest time possible.

Participants also took time to acknowledge that the Child Act 2001, while expected to be the country's first comprehensive legislation on child protection, failed to fulfill its job on a number of counts.

For example, the words "against the child's will" is found in the Act, making it relevant when considering the offence of prostituting a child. This should in fact be struck out, participants said.

It was also recommended that practice directions be issued in ensuring that remand of a child be used as a last resort. Current practice also places children in lock-up with adult offenders, which violates the convention.

Some participants trace this back to the lack of early consultation by the government when drafting the Child Act.

"After it was drafted, the Act was considered a secret," said Suhakam commissioner Zainah Anwar, moderator for the discussion on the criminal justice system and syariah law procedures relating to children.

Zainah said the process of consultation must continue even after the first draft of the law.

Following that, a parliamentary debate was in order to examine the draft law in detail - but that did not seem to have happened, she said.

Laws inconsistent

The dichotomy between the syariah and civil courts on the matter of punishment for incest, definition of a 'child' and the use of rehabilitation services was also addressed.

Participants point out that the syariah system have failed to distinguish perpetrators from victims of incest.

As an example, an incest case tried under the Syariah system in Kelantan saw the 17-year- old girl, who committed the incest with her biological father, tried as an adult and found guilty for committing the offence..

"The question of consent does not come into play here. This kind of situation warrants serious examination," said a working committee rapporteur Wan Ahmad Ibrahim, who is with the Prime Minister's Department.

Another working committee expressed that child offenders found in need of rehabilitation by the Syariah courts were often not sent to rehabilitation centres or children's homes managed by the Social Welfare Department, on grounds of inadequate religious instruction.

Participants also recommended that a study be carried out to eradicate the discrepancies in age between the syariah, and the criminal procedure code, and to raise the age of majority to 18.

Frank discussion

Suhakam commissioner and the conference co-chair KC Vohrah expressed amazement at the "amount of frankness" disclosed by participants over the two days.

In his closing speech, Vohrah said the number of recommendations made by the various working groups will be "extremely useful" in helping the commission formulate final recommendations to the Ministry of Social Development and National Unity.

However, Suhakam was cautious to say how much of the recommendations presented this morning will be included in their conference report, which is expected to be finalised for public consumption in three months.

"The ideas need to be concretised. There will be another meeting in three weeks (to clarify the recommendations in detail), and we will be holding seminars on specific areas," said Vohrah.

Suhakam commissioner Ranita Mohd Hussein, also a co-chair for the dialogues, said the presence of government agencies in the dialogues makes it useful for communication to happen between government and the public.

"We took it as a positive point when the minister (Siti Zaharah) said in her speech that they will take into our recommendations to see how they can incorporate it into their status report (to the UN committee on child rights)," she said.

No comprehensive law

The report, due to be presented to the UN this year, is viewed as a key document in stating, in practical terms, Malaysia's progress on children's rights since signing the Child Convention in 1995.

"We don't have a comprehensive local law, at the moment, to reflect the provisions on the convention," said Ranita.

"It is a big job to try to collate them all into one. The Child Act is one attempt to do so, and I think they have succeeded in some parts,"she added.

The dialogues saw about 110 individuals from government, non-governmental organisations, experts and even children, explore and identify problem areas of Malaysia's implementation of the Child Convention.