Make our recommendations mandatory: Suhakam
Suhakam will propose to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and the de facto law minister to amend the Suhakam Act to make it mandatory for the government to heed their recommendations.
Currently, the commission only plays an advisory role to Putrajaya on human rights issues, said Suhakam commissioner Jerald Joseph.
Suhakam will propose to the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and the de facto law minister to amend the Suhakam Act to make it mandatory for the government to heed their recommendations.
Currently, the commission only plays an advisory role to Putrajaya on human rights issues, said Suhakam commissioner Jerald Joseph.
“We want to make it so that our advice is actionable, where the government is mandated to take action (based on our recommendations).
“If the government is not able to do it for whatever reason, they have to come back to us with a good reason.
“That is what a human rights commission should be able to do,” he said during a press conference at the launch of Suhakam's annual report 2017 in Kuala Lumpur today.
He said they had previously submitted their recommendations, including these amendments to the Suhakam Act, to the Institutional Reforms Committee (IRC).
But as they do not know the status of those recommendations, they have decided to submit the proposed amendments directly to the AGC and law minister Liew Vui Keong, he said.
Joseph hopes that this issue will be debated in Parliament.
On a separate issue, fellow Suhakam commissioner Nik Salida Suhaila Nik Saleh said the public inquiry into the disappearance of Joshua Hilmy and his wife Ruth would likely be handled by the new team of commissioners after next April.
The current batch of commissioners will end their term in April 2019.
She said this is because the current commissioners do not want to leave the inquiry halfway through its completion and have the new commissioners come in the middle of the inquiry.
Suhakam had been holding a public inquiry to investigate whether the disappearances of pastor Raymond Koh, Amri Che Mat and Joshua and Ruth Hilmy, and whether these cases are cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances, as defined under the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED).
Koh was abducted by masked men in broad daylight on Feb 13, 2017. Amri, Joshua and Ruth reportedly went missing on Nov 24, 2016.
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