Human Rights Council: 45th Session of the Universal Periodic Review, Malaysia

Mr Vice-President,

New Zealand welcomes Malaysia’s progress since its previous review.

New Zealand recommends that Malaysia:

1. Continue its work to address inequalities that disproportionally affect Indigenous Peoples, especially in the areas of health, well-being and education, and continue efforts to preserve indigenous cultural identities;
2. Take steps to completely abolish the death penalty and to end caning within the Malaysian legal systems (both civil and Syariah);
3. Ratify the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, and establish a national framework for the protection of refugees;
4. Introduce a legal minimum age for marriage of 18 years, to better uphold the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Sustainable Development Goals; and
5. Take steps to eliminate legislation and policies that discriminate based on sexual orientation, gender non-conformity, and/or criminalise same-sex sexual relations.

We thank the delegation for their participation today and for their consideration of these recommendations.

Thank you Mr Vice-President.