Malaysia Kini
Malaysia is all set to rejoin the United Nations' Human Rights Council based in Geneva.
She has offered herself as a candidate to fill one of the four places reserved for Asia that are up for election for the 2010-2013 term.
The other Asian countries in the running are Iran, Maldives, Qatar and Thailand.
The election, by the General Assembly of the United Nations, takes place on May 13.
If successful, this will be the second time for Malaysia to serve on the 47-member Human Rights Council.
She was a member from 2006 to 2009.
Malaysia has yet to announce her voluntary pledges and commitments that she will undertake if elected.
This is a list of goals or targets which a country agrees to set itself to achieve if elected to the Human Rights Council.
Thus far, of the five Asian countries contesting the four seats reserved for Asia this year, only the Maldives and Thailand have published their voluntary pledges and commitments.
Nothing can be taken for granted
Some parties see Malaysia's election victory as a sure thing, given that there may not be any appetite among members of the United Nations to vote in support of Iran's membership of the Human Rights Council.
Nevertheless, Malaysia should not take her election for granted. She will still need to convince members of the United Nations General Assembly that she is serious about advancing human rights both within Malaysia and in the international arena.
The international community is well aware of the recent controversies surrounding Malaysia's human rights record: the dispute over the use of the term 'Allah' by The Catholic Herald, the caning of women under Shariah law, the attempt to ban a book about women living in Muslim-majority countries published by Sisters In Islam, and now a court challenge over the very name of Sisters In Islam.
It all points to a hardening of Malaysia's position with respect to freedom of religion, and gives cause for concern for the international reputation of Malaysia as a moderate Muslim-majority country.
Additional international concerns have also been raised about Malaysia's treatment of arrested persons and the approach taken by the Royal Malaysian Police in systematically denying arrestees the right of access to legal counsel.
The arrest of lawyers has also been criticised.
An international observer was present during the recently-concluded inquiry by the Malaysian Human Rights Commission or Suhakam into the arrest of the lawyers at Brickfields Police Station on May 7 2009.
Dragging feet over reform
They were also present at the sedition trial of Karpal Singh MP and the sodomy trial of Anwar Ibrahim MP.
All this goes to show that what happens in Malaysia is being noticed and scrutinised by the international community.
Western countries will no doubt want to see commitments from Malaysia to sign up to several more international covenants on human rights.
Malaysia herself indicated in her 2009 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the UN's Human Rights Council that she was considering ratifying the Convention Against Torture and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
This is in addition to giving serious consideration to the removal of reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Malaysia was also asked to look into ratifying two important international human rights conventions, namely the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Based on last year's UPR, Malaysia has as promised launched a comprehensive review of the Internal Security Act and attempted to bolster the credibility of the selection process for commissioners of Suhakam.
However, the results of the former have yet to be seen, and the process of nominating and selecting a new set of commissioners for the latter has continued to be mired in opaqueness and lack of transparency.
Even the names of the selection committee members have not been officially announced.
Although Suhakam's "A" status was recently renewed by the International Co-ordinating Committee (ICC) of National Human Rights Institutions, the joy may be short-lived.
The ICC's Sub-Committee on Accreditation will once again review the Malaysian Government's mechanisms for making the appointment process of Suhakam open and transparent when it meets in November this year.
The way this has been conducted thus far is unlikely to earn Malaysia many brownie points.
Coincidentally, if elected, Malaysia will end her term in 2013, which will also be the year in which Malaysia will be up for review once again under the UPR process, which takes place once every four years.
It remains to be seen whether by then Malaysia's human rights record will have improved in any appreciable way.
ANDREW KHOO is chair of the Human Rights Committee, Malaysian Bar Council.
Malaysia is all set to rejoin the United Nations' Human Rights Council based in Geneva.
She has offered herself as a candidate to fill one of the four places reserved for Asia that are up for election for the 2010-2013 term.
The other Asian countries in the running are Iran, Maldives, Qatar and Thailand.
The election, by the General Assembly of the United Nations, takes place on May 13.
If successful, this will be the second time for Malaysia to serve on the 47-member Human Rights Council.
She was a member from 2006 to 2009.
Malaysia has yet to announce her voluntary pledges and commitments that she will undertake if elected.
This is a list of goals or targets which a country agrees to set itself to achieve if elected to the Human Rights Council.
Thus far, of the five Asian countries contesting the four seats reserved for Asia this year, only the Maldives and Thailand have published their voluntary pledges and commitments.
Nothing can be taken for granted
Some parties see Malaysia's election victory as a sure thing, given that there may not be any appetite among members of the United Nations to vote in support of Iran's membership of the Human Rights Council.
Nevertheless, Malaysia should not take her election for granted. She will still need to convince members of the United Nations General Assembly that she is serious about advancing human rights both within Malaysia and in the international arena.
The international community is well aware of the recent controversies surrounding Malaysia's human rights record: the dispute over the use of the term 'Allah' by The Catholic Herald, the caning of women under Shariah law, the attempt to ban a book about women living in Muslim-majority countries published by Sisters In Islam, and now a court challenge over the very name of Sisters In Islam.
It all points to a hardening of Malaysia's position with respect to freedom of religion, and gives cause for concern for the international reputation of Malaysia as a moderate Muslim-majority country.
Additional international concerns have also been raised about Malaysia's treatment of arrested persons and the approach taken by the Royal Malaysian Police in systematically denying arrestees the right of access to legal counsel.
The arrest of lawyers has also been criticised.
An international observer was present during the recently-concluded inquiry by the Malaysian Human Rights Commission or Suhakam into the arrest of the lawyers at Brickfields Police Station on May 7 2009.
Dragging feet over reform
They were also present at the sedition trial of Karpal Singh MP and the sodomy trial of Anwar Ibrahim MP.
All this goes to show that what happens in Malaysia is being noticed and scrutinised by the international community.
Western countries will no doubt want to see commitments from Malaysia to sign up to several more international covenants on human rights.
Malaysia herself indicated in her 2009 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the UN's Human Rights Council that she was considering ratifying the Convention Against Torture and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
This is in addition to giving serious consideration to the removal of reservations to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Malaysia was also asked to look into ratifying two important international human rights conventions, namely the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Based on last year's UPR, Malaysia has as promised launched a comprehensive review of the Internal Security Act and attempted to bolster the credibility of the selection process for commissioners of Suhakam.
However, the results of the former have yet to be seen, and the process of nominating and selecting a new set of commissioners for the latter has continued to be mired in opaqueness and lack of transparency.
Even the names of the selection committee members have not been officially announced.
Although Suhakam's "A" status was recently renewed by the International Co-ordinating Committee (ICC) of National Human Rights Institutions, the joy may be short-lived.
The ICC's Sub-Committee on Accreditation will once again review the Malaysian Government's mechanisms for making the appointment process of Suhakam open and transparent when it meets in November this year.
The way this has been conducted thus far is unlikely to earn Malaysia many brownie points.
Coincidentally, if elected, Malaysia will end her term in 2013, which will also be the year in which Malaysia will be up for review once again under the UPR process, which takes place once every four years.
It remains to be seen whether by then Malaysia's human rights record will have improved in any appreciable way.
ANDREW KHOO is chair of the Human Rights Committee, Malaysian Bar Council.
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