The 60th World Human Rights Day will be marked in Malaysia with an inaugural programme of parliamentary-style debates rolled out over four days from Dec 9.

Organised by the Bar Council, these will involve teams from public and private institutions of higher learning and foreign education institutions, as well as members of the public.

World Human Rights Day, first declared in 1948, is observed annually on Dec 10.

bar council conference Bar Council executive officer Chin Oy Sim said the list of participants has yet to be finalised.

However, about 100-150 participants are expected to debate the theme ‘UDHR @ 60 and still not all is right’. (UDHR refers to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.)

Teams are expected from public universities like Universiti Malaya, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and Universiti Malaysia Sabah.

Foreign tertiary institutions like Temasik Polytechnic and the Sarawak-based Swinburne University have also shown interest.

Chin said the key objective is to provide a platform for discussion of human rights norms, standards and issues as well as to promote human rights awareness.

"We hope it will help bridge ethnic, linguistic and cultural gaps and foster respect and understanding on various rights-related issues," she said.

Format to be used

The British parliamentary debate format will be used.

This features four positions on each topic - the opening government, closing government, opening opposition and closing opposition.

Each position will be represented by a team of two members. Hence, there will be eight debaters for each topic.

Each debater is allowed seven minutes to present the argument. A ‘point of information’ is allowed to be given after the first and sixth minute of each speaker's argument.

During the opening ceremony, PKR deputy president Syed Husin Ali will deliver the keynote address.

An International Human Rights dinner will also be organised, at which former de facto law minister and recently-sacked Umno member Zaid Ibrahim will deliver a talk.

Chin said attractive prizes await the winners. The events will take place at the KDU College and at the Bar Council building.