CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE TAN SRI HASMY AGAM Chairman The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Pursuant to Section 21 of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Act 1999 (Act 597), the Commission is required to submit its Annual Report to Parliament each year before the first term of the Parliament session. This is the 15th Annual Report which presents a record of the Commission’s activities and programmes, issues and recommendations, as well as financial management over the past 12 months. The Commission continued to work on a wide range of human rights issues including business and human rights; National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP); right to health and HIV/AIDS; Parliamentary Select Committee on Human Rights; as well as rights of vulnerable groups such as Indigenous Peoples, women, children, persons with disabilities, and older persons, detainees, refugees and asylum seekers, migrant workers and transgender people. The Commission also continued to monitor the Country’s implementation of its treaty obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Convention on the Elimination on All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Efforts were also made by the Commission to advocate for Malaysia’s accession to the remaining international core human rights treaties. Throughout 2015, the Commission received a total of 676 complaints, of which 333 cases fell within its jurisdiction. Of the 333 cases of alleged human rights violations, the Commission has completed investigations into 197 cases, while the rest are still being followed up. These complaints were mainly related to persistent human rights issues such as nationality; native customary land rights; arbitrary arrest and detention; cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; employment and migrant workers, the right to seek asylum and refugee status; the right to adequate standard of living; and environmental rights, among others. BOOK-ANR2016-01-latest.indb 1 08/04/2016 3:32 PM