Nancy: National Human Rights Action Plan to be implemented

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP) will be implemented before year's end as a guide to preserving human rights in the country, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nancy Shukri.
She said the government had long intended to introduce the plan but it was delayed due to shortage of funds.
"The plan is a five-year programme and needs the involvement of many parties. Before this, the programme (relating to human rights) we only carried out at the government and agency levels.
"But the scope of human rights is actually big and we could not widen our scope due to shortage of funds," she told reporters after launching a Seminar on the National Human Rights Action Plan here today.
She said the government had approved an allocation of more than RM4 million for the implementation of the plan.
Nancy added that the contents of the plan were currently being finalised, including conducting a comprehensive study on human rights plans in other countries.
Asked if Malaysia would use the NHRAP models from certain countries, she said the NHRAP in this country must take into consideration the local situation such as diverse races and religions.
"There is no best model for Malaysia because our country has many races and religions. We have to identify the model of a country which is almost similar to ours but it still has to be studied in detail," she said.
The NHRAP contains five core features which are civil and political rights, economic, social, religious and cultural rights, rights of vulnerable groups, rights of the Orang Asli or Orang Asal, and global responsibilities.
The government had agreed to set up the NHRAP plan as proposed by the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in 2009 in the continuing effort to ensure improvements in basic human rights.
A total of 33 nations including Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, China, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia had developed their plans. – Bernama