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SUNGAI PETANI, Sat., 24 Feb: “Human Rights, International Instruments and Malaysian Realities” - despite the formidable title for this training session, about 30 pupils in chambers, 3 members of the public and 15 lawyers gathered together early Saturday morning at the Cinta Sayang Resort, Sungai Petani for this inaugural human rights training programme for the Kedah/Perlis Bar.

In an inspiring speech, the Chairperson of the Kedah/Perlis Bar, Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera welcomed the participants and brought home the universality of human rights by linking the fundamental liberties enshrined in our Federal Constitution to the Magna Carta and the ancient Babylonian Code of Hammurabi. He also gave the ‘human’ side to human rights by recounting the suffering of refugees fleeing persecution in their home countries who come to Malaysia for asylum. Vazeer also pointed out the very encouraging response to the Refugees Conference organised by the Malaysian Bar in 2005, with the presence of the then Chief Judge (Malaya) Tan Sri Siti Norma Yaakob and a significant number of officers from the Judicial and Legal Service.

Rajen Devaraj, the Human Rights Officer of the Bar Council then got everyone in the room on their feet. He conducted an interactive exercise where the participants, after removing all the chairs from the room, were asked to physically ‘take a stand’ on various issues. We were shown various statements on screen and participants moved around the room and took their stand in front of signs saying they ‘agreed’, ‘disagreed’ or ‘didn’t know’ with that statement.

Some of the statements were:

• Foreign workers should receive the same benefits as local workers.
• The death penalty should be abolished
• We should be like Indonesia where everyone has the freedom to convert to the religion of their choice.
• Marital rape should be criminalised.
• Caning should never be used as punishment.

Participants were then asked to defend their stand. Interesting divisions, opinions and arguments were put forward and it was quite heartening to see many pupils confidently articulating their arguments either way. To a question asked by one participant, Rajen pointed out that in fact, giving foreign workers the same benefits as Malaysian workers would in the long run benefit Malaysian workers. If less benefits were given to foreign workers, it would became cheaper for employers to hire them thus reducing jobs for Malaysians.

Darshan Singh Aulakh, Chairperson of the Human Rights Sub-Committee of the Kedah/Perlis Bar and who organised the event, then gave an overview of the universality of human rights citing amongst others the example of Ashoka, the Buddhist emperor of India in the 3^rd century BC, the words of Guru Nanak and the liberties of person found in the Holy Quran. He also gave some real examples of human rights abuses in Malaysia. A brief introduction to SUHAKAM and its role in protecting the human rights of those of us living in Malaysia was also explained.

C. Megalai, Chairperson of the Legal Aid Sub-Committee of the Kedah/Perlis Bar, then gave a short speech on the role of legal aid within the human rights framework. She bemoaned the fact that legal aid in Kedah/Perlis was desperately short of volunteers, and urged participants to try and take up at least one legal aid case a year in line with the Bar’s commitments on this.

I then gave a brief overview of the problems of police abuse in Malaysia, and the desirability of forming an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission. The Police Commission’s findings that there were 135 people who died in custody from 1993 to September 2004 shocked many. A brief overview of the rights of suspects and accused persons when arrested and during remand was also given, including the effect of the yet to be enforced amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code.

I followed on with a presentation on “Civil/Syariah Jurisdiction and Access to Justice” and gave some examples of the human problems faced by persons who are caught in ‘legal limbo’ due to the wrongful application of Islamic law on them. The cases of Everest Moorthy’s widow as well as cases such as Genga, Shamala and Nedunchelian, where one spouse converts to Islam and gets Syariah court orders converting his children and dissolving his marriage in the absence of his (or her) non Muslim spouse, were highlighted The guarantees under our Constitution and international norms, including the Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights, to freedom of religion was explained.

Edmund Bon then gave a presentation which traced the jurisprudential history of what human rights actually are, and the various international human rights instruments. The United Nations Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the provisions of the two international human rights treaties which Malaysia has ratified - the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women  - were touched on. In a nutshell, Edmund said, human rights protection standards are essentially a basic mechanism to ensure that the ordinary person on the street can check the power of government so it does not lead to abuse. Edmund compared the fundamental liberties in our Federal Constitution and those rights protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights showing that whilst the protections in Malaysia are very much circumscribed, they are basically protecting the same thing. He showed that in fact human rights is very much entrenched in Malaysian law and is not alien to us. He ended with an appeal to the audience of predominantly pupils to read and live up to our noble statutory duties set out in section 42 of the Legal Profession Act, 1976.

The final session of the day was an interactive session with the participants discussing 10 different case studies on various issues affecting human rights. The case studies were primarily based on actual human rights cases that had come to the courts, and the participants broke into smaller groups and discussed what they would do in each case. One representative from each group then came up to present their advice to their “client”.

What was encouraging from the programme was that more than 20 pupils stayed right until the very end of a long day and showed a keen interest in human rights. They were also very responsive in the interactive sessions and were willing to stand their ground and to give their views in a forthright and persuasive manner, whilst at the same time accepting constructive criticism. One participant’s blog entry for the day shows she was very inspired by the training programme. There was, however, much confusion on human rights law generally, on the court procedures available to seek relief and on the various extra judicial mechanisms available that could be utilised in advancing the cause of a victim of a human rights abuse.  It is clear therefore that there is a void in proper human rights training for new lawyers. I feel we in the Bar should develop a standard human rights training module and then carry out these training programmes every year through all the State Bars.

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