Conducting a National Inquiry into Systemic Patterns of Human Rights Violation Case study: National Inquiry into the Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2013 HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF MALAYSIA (SUHAKAM) Background and context of the inquiry Between December 2010 and June 2012, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) conducted a National Inquiry into the Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples. SUHAKAM published the report of the National Inquiry in 2013.37 Since its establishment in 1999, SUHAKAM had been dealing with allegations of violations to indigenous customary rights to land, many of which it was unable to resolve. These complaints from indigenous peoples related to allegations of encroachment and/or dispossession of land, land included into forest or park reserves, overlapping claims and slow processing of requests for the issuing of native titles or community reserves. SUHAKAM therefore decided in 2010 to conduct a National Inquiry to tackle the root causes of land issues comprehensively. In deciding to conduct the National Inquiry – the first-ever undertaken by SUHAKAM – the members of the Commission considered that this long-standing and systemic issue affecting the indigenous peoples of the country could best be dealt with in a comprehensive and in-depth fashion, with a view to having a better understanding of the issue, or issues, their underlying causes, the effects on the indigenous communities, and how best to resolve the issue in the interest of promoting and protecting the human rights of an important segment of the population of the nation. The National Inquiry would begin by recognising the experiences of indigenous peoples all over Malaysia, examined through a human rights lens. In identifying who are the indigenous peoples of Malaysia, the National Inquiry referred to the Federal Constitution, relevant State laws and the working definition used by the United Nations. While it recognised that the Malays of Peninsula Malaysia are indigenous to Malaysia, it decided, in adhering to the United Nations’ definition of the term, to focus on the aborigines, or Orang Asli, of Peninsular Malaysia and those native to Sabah and Sarawak. This group constituted 13.8 per cent of Malaysia’s population. Their story is that of rural communities adjusting to life in a country that is fast becoming a developed and modernised nation, yet wishing to preserve, as much as possible, their own way of life, with their customs, traditions and beliefs, even if over time these would also be affected by the changes around them. While some of them are adjusting to the mainstream life of the nation and living in or near urban centres, due to economic factors, others choose to reside in their traditional habitats, while a smaller group prefers to lead the wandering life of their ancestors in the interior of the country. Their story is also one of coping with the effects of rapid modernisation of the country that has increasingly impinged on their own communal way of life and which they feel powerless to resist. They consider that they must resist it to preserve their own sense of identity and dignity as a people, while they recognise that they are inescapably an integral part of a modern, dynamic nation. 37 98 Report of the National Inquiry into the Land Rights of Indigenous Peoples; available at: https://nhri.ohchr.org/EN/Themes/ BusinessHR/Business%20Womens%20and%20Childrens%20Rights/SUHAKAM%20BI%20FINAL.CD.pdf.