However, as 2018 drew to a close and euphoria settled nationwide, it is becoming increasingly clear that the new government would re-evaluate its promises to the people of Malaysia. Despite the commitment to make Malaysia’s human rights record respected by the world, the government backpedalled on its keystone election commitments that would remove, for good, mechanisms that have curtailed human rights in Malaysia. The opportunity to accede to the six remaining international human rights treaties could not have come at a better time, but for even the so-called ‘low-hanging fruit’, a consensus could not be reached over the absolute prohibition of torture and the elimination of racial discrimination, for example. Conditions of detention should not be an added punishment, and I lament the deplorable state of some of our prisons and detention centres that are in breach of a number of United Nations standards. There are still a handful of our prisons that use the bucket system, a degrading toilet system in the 1950s. SUHAKAM finds that our prisons lack the necessary resources for effective rehabilitation to ensure that when detainees are released, they are better equipped to become law-abiding individuals that can contribute to society. Death in custody is a matter that SUHAKAM takes very seriously, and we continue to monitor prisons and detention centres to the best of our ability. In our view, Malaysia still has inadequate legal safeguards against torture in custodial settings and action by the government to effectively reduce and prevent acts of torture behind custodial walls seems to be minimal. Many of the primary safeguards against ill-treatment and torture of detainees are protected within the framework of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) that the government has committed to acceding. Likewise, accession to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT) is a long-held hope here in SUHAKAM – one the government has also pledged its commitment to – and in doing so, will bring closure to inhuman treatment in custody and embrace a new regime of rehabilitation. A blow to both human rights in Malaysia and SUHAKAM came in the form of the government distancing itself from participating in our 2018 Human Rights Day celebration that was misreported as a counter-rally as it bowed to political pressure to reject accession to the International Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discriminations (ICERD). The groups opposing accession were irrationally claiming that accession would unravel social contracts built on the backs of affirmative action viii SUHAKAM ANNUAL REPORT 2018