Resident Coordinator's speech: Human Rights Day Forum 2022 - Strengthening and Enhancing Human Rights Towards Leaving No One Behind

Ampun Tuanku

Your Royal Highness

Yang di-Pertuan Besar Negeri Sembilan Darul Khusus

Tuanku Muhriz Ibni Almarhum Tuanku Munawir

As the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Malaysia, it is my honour to welcome you to the Human Rights Day Forum 2022.

I request you to kindly permit me to proceed with the speech.

Your Royal Highness,

Yang Berbahagia Dato' Cheong Loon Lai, Deputy Secretary General for Multilateral Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs;

Yang Berbahagia Datuk Abd Shukor bin Mahmood, Director General, Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department;

Yang Berbahagia Dato’ Dr. Rahmat bin Mohamad, Chairman of SUHAKAM, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia;

Representatives of Federal Ministries and agencies;

Representatives of state and local governments;

Members of the civil society;

Members of the international community and UN colleagues;

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning and a very warm welcome to the Human Rights Day Forum 2022, a joint commemoration by the Government of Malaysia, the National Human Rights Institution of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) and the United Nations in Malaysia.  

On behalf of the UN, I express our appreciation and recognition to our close and valued partners: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department, and SUHAKAM.

I want first to emphasize the absolute centrality of human rights, captured in this year’s global theme of “freedom, dignity and justice.”  

Codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, drafted almost 75 years ago by scholars and experts from different legal systems and cultures, human rights lie at the core of the UN’s multifaceted mission globally, regionally, and here in Malaysia. 

They are the cornerstone of international law and provide the basis of UN agency mandates, spanning the development, humanitarian, and peace and security pillars.   

I also want to emphasize the clear and enduring link between human rights and the global development agenda.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were crafted by member States with an explicitly rights-based focus and the theme of our Forum “Strengthening and Enhancing Human Rights Towards Leaving No One Behind” reminds us that human rights are universal and inalienable, interdependent and indivisible, but crucially also, they are enablers of development.  

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This has a special resonance in today’s global and national contexts.  The post-Covid recovery has been slow and uneven, as the pandemic laid bare major human development deficits and deep fractures in the social contract.

The development gaps to be addressed, further aggravated by the pandemic, are clearest in the health and education spheres, but there are also tears in the social fabric and weakened community cohesion.  In too many countries, we see division and alienation, and a continually shrinking civic space.

These issues too merit urgent attention.  

However, I must also note that the pandemic saw unprecedented levels of social solidarity, inclusion, charity and generosity. The world succeeded in vaccinating billions of people, in providing healthcare to those infected, and in supporting livelihoods.  

Where vaccines were available, they were delivered without fear or favour on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, or social and economic status. 

While the pandemic remains a tragedy of enormous proportions, these human rights-based actions have saved millions of lives, and we would do well to remember this experience going forward.   

The conflict in Ukraine has brought about more crises, further constraining recovery and resilience building.

The increases in prices have hit those on low incomes the hardest, and core inflation is now having a serious impact on living standards and food security.

To add to this, contractionary monetary policy responses deployed by central banks, will in the near term at least, worsen the pressures on the poor and vulnerable.

Climate change also disproportionality affects some groups more than others, most clearly people living in low lying areas and in places susceptible to adverse weather events, but also the vulnerable more generally.  

These pressures are already being felt in Malaysia, where the most affected groups are those least able to cope.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Recognition of human rights fused with a development vision which prioritizes unity and inclusion, has long been important for a multi-ethnic and multicultural Malaysia.  They lie at the heart of the Federal Constitution. 

The emphasis placed on inclusion, on whole-of-society efforts and on reaching out to excluded and disadvantaged groups is especially encouraging.   Commitments to human rights are also reflected in Malaysia’s election to the Human Rights Council, and the many positive pledges made on accession. 

It is however critical that this rhetoric is backed by bold actions. 

As Malaysia continues to engage in the Universal Periodic Review and in the Human Rights Council, it has the scope and ability to affect change by leading by example.  

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The new unity government has a historic opportunity to further anchor its policies and actions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals while applying a human rights-based approach.

As the nation comes together to build a future of shared prosperity and sustainability, I would like to highlight four key directions. 

First and foremost, it is important for Malaysia to move decisively towards the ratification of the human rights treaties that it has not yet adopted.  

This is in addition to strengthening compliance and re-examining its reservations on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  

Compliance would bring Malaysia in line with advanced nations, marking a milestone to its progress towards high income status. It is also the right thing to do, and would provide an effective backstop to national efforts to protect the human rights of all groups and peoples in Malaysia.

Secondly, it is vital to recognize that achieving the SDGs by 2030 is increasingly a question of addressing the specific needs of groups at risk of being left behind and the persisting gaps in education, health, and wider living standards.  

These gaps are driven by well-documented economic and social rights challenges: the exclusion of those working in precarious employment in the informal sector and of populations living in remote areas; and a chronic lack of access to basic services, especially schooling and basic healthcare, by migrants, refugees and stateless persons. 

It need not be this way.

Malaysia’s highly inclusive approach during the Covid-pandemic was exemplary, offering vaccinations to all regardless of status, while also scaling up social protection transfers to those at risk of impoverishment.  

Similar rights-based policies and inclusive actions are urgently needed to break the cycles of exclusion and build better together.

Third, the empowerment of women and girls, and their protection from all forms of gender-based violence remains a clear human rights and developmental priority.  

Despite undoubted and continuing progress, structural barriers continue to hinder women’s full economic performance and political participation. 

Malaysia has the means to dismantle those barriers.

Malaysia also has the means to eliminate gender-based violence.  

Stronger and innovative responses are needed to tackle the root causes of these inequities, including longer term efforts to ensure that social norms do not lock the potential of women and girls but empower and protect them instead.

Eliminating legal inequities is critical and there are several quick wins to be made, notably with regard to nationality law and the practice of child marriage.

My fourth point is on the human rights dimensions of climate change and wider environmental damage. In July this year, The UN General Assembly passed a resolution recognizing the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment as a human right.

I have noted that the impact of climate change affects those living in risk prone locations.  This not only includes coastal communities, but also indigenous peoples in remote areas as well as urban dwellers living and working in floodplains.

As Malaysia accelerates its mitigation efforts, urgent investment is needed in adaptation-based infrastructure, in nature-based solutions and other measures including comprehensive social protection.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Delivering on the SDGs and the Human Rights agenda is fundamentally about ensuring that no group, no individual, no region is left behind. This echoes the pledge made by the Honourable Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim only a few minutes after he took his oath of office.  

The United Nations stands ready to accompany Malaysia as it simultaneously delivers on the covenant given by the UDHR, and the inclusive and sustainable future mapped out in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Our unique partnership with the Government of Malaysia, our Memorandum of Understanding with SUHAKAM, and the longstanding ties with our international partners and a myriad of human rights defenders, have been invaluable.

We will continue to support international reporting processes such as the UPR and the Voluntary National Review of the SDGs, through awareness and knowledge building, policy support on a wide range of issues, and advocacy.

I end there. I thank you for honouring us with your presence, and for responding to our invitation and to the UN Secretary General’s call to stand up for human rights.

Your Royal Highness.