KUCHING: Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) is seeking closer cooperation with the Sarawak Government to strengthen child protection and elderly rights awareness.
SUHAKAM Chairman, Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Md Yunus, said SUHAKAM’s main focus was to work with the Sarawak Government on human rights-related matters, particularly those involving children and elderly persons.
“In this regard, our focus is on two areas, namely human rights related to children and issues concerning elderly persons.
“For children, the matters included substance use, child marriage, domestic violence, and other related issues.
“We also want to raise awareness on international conventions involving children, as well as matters related to the Child Act,” he said.
He said this during the press conference after he paid a courtesy visit to the Premier at Kompleks Satria Pertiwi here today.
Meanwhile, Children’s Commissioner, Dr Zufar Yadi Brendan Abdullah, said SUHAKAM had proposed several programmes to be carried out with the Sarawak Government, with support from the state government.
“These include child protection and safety programmes, as well as capacity building for stakeholders who deal directly with children,” he added.
He said the training would involve immigration authorities, health authorities, the Royal Malaysia Police, welfare agencies and the judiciary.
He explained that such training was important to ensure agencies understood how to protect children’s rights in their respective areas of work, including how police should deal with children who come into conflict with the law.
“That is an important form of capacity building,” he said.
He said SUHAKAM also wanted to collaborate with the Sarawak Government to introduce human rights programmes in schools.
This, he said, would allow children to understand human rights and their responsibilities from a young age.
“As they grow older, they will be able to assess the responsibilities and rights that they have,” he said.
Zufar also said another proposed area was the implementation of programmes with youths, alongside continued engagement with the legislative side.
“This included engagement with members of the State Legislative Assembly to explain and familiarise them with human rights issues,” he added.
“These include human rights instruments that Malaysia has signed at the international level, such as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.”
He also referred to United Nations conventions relating to special needs as among the important areas for wider understanding.
He said such engagement should not only involve elected representatives, but also the administration, ministries, departments, resident offices and district offices.
“This was important so that people across Sarawak could better understand matters related to their rights and responsibilities,” he stressed.
On elderly persons, Zufar said SUHAKAM also discussed the need to improve literacy among senior citizens.
“This was important as Sarawak is expected to become an ageing state by 2028,” he added.
“As such, elderly persons should be exposed to their rights and responsibilities to the state and to themselves. These include rights under the World Health Organisation and the United Nations.”
He said the matters raised were part of SUHAKAM’s proposed integrated programmes with the state government and its agencies.
“These are among the areas we discussed for integrated programmes, not only with the state government, but also with the agencies under the state government, with the support of the Sarawak Government,” he said.
