On 12 December, the Commission was invited by the Pahang religious authorities to give a talk on children’s rights to the administrators of religious/Tahfiz schools in Pahang. Apart from imparting knowledge to the administrators of religious/Tahfiz schools on the safety aspects and rights of the children under their care, the programme also aimed to appeal to the administrators to register their schools with the State Religious Department for the purpose of monitoring. Among other agencies that gave talks at the programme were Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia, Pahang State Education Department and Ministry of Health. The Commission applauds such initiative by the state religious authorities and encourages the religious authorities in other states to organise such programmes in their respective states. 2 “Alleged abuse victim Thaqif died from rat urine disease”, The Star, viewed at https://www. thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/07/10/thaqif-died-due-to-infection/ on 30 November 2017. S U H A K A M A N N U A L R EPOR T 2017 73 2 In September, the country was shocked with the tragic deaths of 21 children and two teachers in a fire at Pusat Tahfiz Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah in Jalan Datuk Keramat, Kuala Lumpur. The Commission visited the location of the tragedy on 14 September. It was later discovered that seven teenagers were involved in the burning of the school as a revenge, and they were being charged in court. The tragedies had raised concerns of the safety standards at religious schools as well as the authorities’ responsibility to ensure compliance of the religious/Tahfiz schools with the regulations. C H A P T E R with the State Religious Authority, equipped with sophisticated facilities, wellfunded and adopted the Ministry of Education’s guideline on disciplinary rules, the incident should be a reminder to the management of religious schools of their responsibility to check on the suitability of potential staff before they are allowed to work with children. State authorities are also responsible to continuously monitor and provide periodical training to the religious school management. On 10 July, the Health Director-General, Datuk Seri Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah, announced that the post-mortem result indicated that the child had died due to leptospirosis and had a complication with skin necrosis, along with the formation of micro blood clot in the blood vessels.2 At the time of writing, the Commission was waiting to meet with the Ministry of Health (MoH) to discuss the case further.