KUALA LUMPUR: Education system is the best mechanism to integrate fundamental values of human rights and principles in any country.
In putting forward this concept, United Nations Resident Coordinator, Malaysia, Kamal Malhotra said the integration should be done at all levels, and from a fairly early stage.
In that sense, he explained, the major focus has to be on the school curriculum.
“The principles under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights could be part of the curriculum. My understanding is that Malaysia does not have human rights as part of the curriculum in the school system.
“So I think in a country that as multi ethnic and diverse as Malaysia, you need to find a way to integrate this right across the school system,” he told reporters after speaking at the 2009 United Nations (UN) Human Rights Day Seminar held in Kuala Lumpur recently.
The seminar was held in conjunction with Human Rights Day 2009, which officially falls on Dec 10. This year’s theme is ‘Embrace Diversity, End Discrimination’.
According to Malhotra, the integration of human rights education is an essential starting point in building a culture of human rights.
“If you want to sustain a commitment to human rights in any society, there has to be first a culture of human rights and it cannot be a one off process.
“Human rights culture means you have to start essentially with the education system with the values that are in the education system at a fairly early age.
“That way you can begin to talk about a culture of human rights among ordinary citizens, and that is very important in any society,” he explained.
Pablo Espiniella, Human Rights Officer, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Regional Office for South-East Asia told Bernama that one of the ways to move ahead on rights is to make people aware of their rights. He also shared Malhotra’s views that the only way to do it is through education at all levels.
“It can be at the school levels but it needs to be in all society,” he added.
Espiniella said people in Malaysia through the social networks will be able also to obtain information on what rights they have and what kind of instruments they have to enjoy their rights.
“Country so diverse like Malaysia can be a good example for many other countries in the region on how its people can live and embrace diversity,” he said.
Seminar participant, Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir told Bernama that human rights have always been portrayed in a very negative way in Malaysia.
People, she said would think about ISA (Internal Security Act) and of political rights when confronted with issues of human rights.
“Human rights are not just about politics. It encompasses everything. There are also social and cultural rights. There are gender rights and even talking about equality between male and female is already difficult in this country. So we need to start because without this understanding of rights, I think we are not able to move forward in many things,” she said.
Marina said rights also include children’s rights.
“Yet everyday we are not respecting that in the way we are giving education. We are not taking into account the children’ voices and the children feel that but they do not understand it is about rights and they have rights,” she said.
Marina said one way of moving forward in the spirit of 1Malaysia would be to embrace the human rights culture.
Malaysia, she argued has to keep up with the rest of the world and that everyone looks at things now from the human rights perspective.
“1Malaysia will have no meaning if we do not look at from the human rights perspective. No meaning at all. We have to embrace it.
“If we go else where and people do this thing to us, how would we feel? Like the refugees issue, how would we know that we would never end up as refugees? Then what?
“One of our problems is that we are unable to put ourselves in anybody’s else shoes. We are too much in our comfort zone,” said Marina.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948 at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, partly in response to the atrocities of World War II.
According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, the Declaration represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are entitled.
Sixty-one years thereof, the Declaration holds the world record as the most translated document with more than 360 language versions available.
The Declaration consists of 30 articles, which according to Wikipedia have been elaborated in subsequent international treaties, regional human rights instruments, national constitutions and laws. — Bernama
In his opening remarks at the 2009 United Nations (UN) Human Rights Day Seminar, Malhotra said even though basic human rights have been agreed by all UN member states, the gap between rhetoric and reality remains wide and may even be growing in some countries and for some population groups.
“The challenge is to close this gap, by bringing together the respective strengths of different independent institutions in society – the legislature, the executive and the judiciary – to work in tandem, creating synergies for the sustainable protection of all human rights for each and every individual,” he said.
According to Malhotra, all UN member States have ratified at least one, and 80 per cent of the states have ratified four or more of the UN’s core human rights treaties.
There are nine (9) core international human rights treaties altogether.
Malaysia, Malhotra said, has thus far ratified and signed only two of them. These are the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Both Conventions were signed in 1995 with reservations.
Malaysia, he said, has signed but not yet ratified the 2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
“The 2009 Universal Periodic Review (UPR) found that Malaysia still had a considerable distance to cover. As a member of the Human Rights Council, Malaysia should set an example by implementing necessary changes that will have a real impact on the protection of human rights in the country,” said Malhotra.
The UPR is a new and unique mechanism of the United Nations which started in April 2008 and consisting of the review of the human rights practices of all states in the world, once every four years. — Bernama