On July8, representatives from Royal Norwegian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur joined “Regional Dialogue on Malaysia’s Accession to the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT).”
The regional dialogue on Malaysia’s Accession to UUCAT was held by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) and the European Union to Malaysia with an aim to accelerate and encourage Malaysian government to accede to the UNCAT.
The guests attending also included Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohamed Hanipa Maidin who spoke to the reporters after the dialogue launched that Malaysian government did not consider acceding the UNCAT as the country’s most priority. So, the government will not rush into ratifying UNCAT since there are many issues to take into consideration.
According to the report by Bernama, the deputy minister said, “Such a matter must be decided by the Cabinet, and we haven’t decided anything on it.”
With the mission to prevent torture and other acts of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment around the world, UNCAT is an international human rights treaty, under the review of the United Nations that has been ratified by 166 UN member states including Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Timor Leste.
On their Facebook page, the Norwegian Embassy expressed their acknowledgement and support for organizing the regional dialogue.
“This is an important platform for sharing best practices among key stakeholders from different regions on their accession or ratification of the UNCAT as well as its implementation at a domestic level,” the Embassy wrote, adding that “Norway stands by universal ratification of the UNCAT.
Source: Royal Norwegian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur
