CHAPTER 1 - REPORT OF THE EDUCATION AND PROMOTION WORKING GROUP Among the topics discussed were the rights of children and women, the right to physical and moral integrity, the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to health, making prisons a safe place and the best use of prisons, special categories of prisoners who include women and juveniles and persons under detention without sentence. Role-play and discussion of case studies were used to reinforce the training. (c) Talks for RELA Members The Commission increased its focus on the People’s Volunteer Corps (RELA) in widening their exposure to human rights values. The Commission was invited to talk on human rights at RELA training courses across Malaysia. The Commission itself organised two training-of-trainers sessions for senior officers. The Commission, which has conducted training for RELA since 2007, also monitors complaints against its personnel. In 2008, the number of cases received by the Commission was six. From 2009 to August 2010, there were no complaints to the Commission. In addition, the 2009 Annual Report of Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM)6 did not report any cases involving RELA. There are two possibilities for the decrease in complaints. Firstly, this could be an outcome of the human rights awareness programmes conducted by the Commission as well as improvements within RELA’s Standard Operating Procedure. Secondly, RELA no longer conducts operations on its own, but only assists enforcement agencies like the Immigration Department and the Royal Malaysian Police. Still, the Commission would like to see a systematic recruitment process in RELA which carefully evaluates each candidate’s background and qualifications. This is especially in view of RELA’s intention to recruit 2.5 million members,7 especially those aged between 16 and 40 years, before the end of 2012. The Commission therefore proposed that RELA reviews the effectiveness of its training, in view of the policy requiring recruits to attend a basic course for just seven days. A longer and comprehensive period of training should be considered before they are appointed as full members. 6 7 SUARAM: Malaysia Human Rights Report 2009: Civil Political Rights http://mstar.com.my/berita/cerita.asp?file=/2010/8/4/mstar_berita/20100804113819&sec=mstar_berita 32