chairman’s message chairman’s message This 10th Annual Report of the Commission to Parliament also represents the first by the current Commission whose members were appointed in April. The Commission continues to receive numerous reports and complaints from members of the public pertaining to human rights abuses and violations. It is indeed encouraging to see that more Malaysians are becoming aware of, and are exercising, their fundamental rights today compared to a decade ago. They are also increasingly seeking the Commission’s intervention in supporting their rights. The Commission is responding to the best of its ability, albeit within the constraints of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Act 1999 (Act 597). The Commission owes a debt of gratitude to its 16 predecessors, headed by Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman, for their worthy contributions to the promotion and protection of human rights during their tenure. These have raised the Commission’s profile to a respectable level locally and internationally. The current seven-member Commission will continue promoting, protecting and monitoring the human rights situation just as assiduously, in spite of its reduced size, building on the achievements of the past. We believe that there should be no let-up in the quest to realise the ultimate goal of building a society that will have greater appreciation of, and respect for, human rights, thereby making Malaysia a fully human rights-respecting nation that stands proudly in the ranks of leading nations in this field. The Commission’s priority for the year has been to re-address human rights issues raised previously; to follow up on the many recommendations put forward by the previous Commission and other human rights defenders; and to ensure speedy implementation by the relevant Government agencies. Since its inception in 1999, the Commission has played its statutory role of advising the Government and its relevant authorities on matters pertaining to the reformulation of laws and policies and their implementation, as well as monitoring of such laws and policies to ensure consistency between the national laws and human rights principles. We welcome the positive actions taken by the Government towards the betterment of human rights conditions, and look forward to working closely and constructively with the relevant agencies on these matters. “Among the positive developments have been the inclusion of ‘gender’ in the Federal Constitution as one of the ground upon which discrimination is prohibited; the improvement of conditions in detention centres an police lock-ups; the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; the enactment of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act 2007; the withdrawal of reservations to Articles 1