3. JOINT CELEBRATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY CHAPTER 2 The United Nations Association Malaysia (UNAM), in collaboration with the Commission, the United Nations Country Team in Malaysia (UNCT), as well as the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (IDFR), jointly organised a Panel Discussion on 8 December to flag off the celebrations for Human Rights Day, which falls on 10 December annually. The Panel Discussion centred on two topics, namely “Accession to Core International Human Rights Treaties: Where Do We Move From Here?” as well as “Human Rights in Malaysia: Towards a Developed Nation Status”. The first session was moderated by Prof Emeritus Dato’ CP Ramachandran, Vice-President of UNAM. He was joined by highly esteemed panel speakers, namely Tan Sri Hasmy Agam, former Chairman of the Commission; Mr Andrew Khoo Chin Hock, CoChair of the Bar Council Human Rights Committee; and Mr Daniel Lo Soo Jeng, Special Officer for Human Rights in the Office of YB Senator Datuk Paul Low Seng Kuan, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department. The second session was moderated by Dato’ M Santhanaban, the Chairman of UNAM’s Human Rights Committee. He was joined by three panel speakers, namely Mr Richard Towle, Representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; Prof Dr Jomo Kwame Sundaram, holder of the Tun Hussein Onn Chair in International Studies at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia; and Ms Zainah Anwar, Director of MUSAWAH. Among the points raised during the panel discussions were: i) There is an urgent need for Malaysia to accede to the remaining six out of nine core international human right treaties without further delay in order to be on par with other developed nations by 2020. ii) While other developed nations have their own flaws, Malaysia should not use that as an excuse to not improve its own record and performance as a nation when it comes to human rights. iii) While there are some ministries that are more inclined to support accession to the treaties than others, the Malaysian Government should act as a unifying entity in order to move forward with the agenda of subscribing to the same norms and standards of human rights as the rest of the world. iv) There is a need for a pragmatic approach whereby Malaysia could begin with acceding to the less “problematic” human rights instruments while seriously working on those few that that will take a little more time to be agreed upon by national consensus. v) There is a suggestion for non-State actors to adopt a strategic approach in engaging the Government on specific human rights causes in order to 82 SUHAKAM ANNUAL REPORT 2016 suhakam 2new.indd 82 3/23/17 5:54 PM