A blow to both human rights in Malaysia and SUHAKAM came in the form of the gover nment distancing itself from participating in our 2018 Human Rights Day celebration that was misreported as a counter-rally as it bowed to political pressure to reject accession to the International Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discriminations (ICERD). and the special position of Malays in the Federal Constitution. SUHAKAM will persevere in its efforts to convince the government to pursue human rights as a necessity in the social, political and economic development of Malaysia. For its part, SUHAKAM’s future is looking bright. SUHAKAM has stepped up engagements with policymakers and ministers in a bid to increase awareness and understanding of human rights from a legislative standpoint and successfully organised its first joint programme for Members of Parliament with the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives (Dewan Rakyat) on 25 September. Current activities aimed at increasing transparency and independence in the governance of SUHAKAM are underway, with plans to make SUHAKAM accountable to Parliament. SUHAKAM’s independence would be further enhanced under Parliament and would provide us with leverage to operationalise human rights and in time validify the proposition that human rights are central to the country going forward and for Parliamentarians to believe that human rights win votes. Given the current state of Malaysia’s lacklustre protections when it comes to the rights and welfare of children particularly on issues such as child marriage, detention and statelessness, among others, SUHAKAM is especially encouraged by the government’s initiative through the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development to establish a Children’s Commission and pledges its support in this endeavour. SUHAKAM has also developed, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, a Human Rights Module for Post UPSR and PT3 school students, with implementation by some schools already. While the feedback has been positive, SUHAKAM will need to constructively evaluate how effective our efforts have been, with the aim of expanding the scope of this particular project so that more youths and children will become aware of their rights as well as the principles of human rights. SUHAKAM ANNUAL REPORT 2018 ix