The APF provides the NHRIs in our region with advice, training and support so they can be powerful advocates for and defenders of human rights and deliver tangible changes that improve people’s lives. WORKERS RECEIVE JUSTICE AFTER BEING HELD IN MODERN-DAY SLAVERY “THIS HAS BEEN OUR LAND FOR GENERATIONS” A complaint made to the National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh has secured justice for exploited workers and family members on a major tea estate. The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a group of Orang Asli villagers who claimed that their ancestral lands had been encroached by the state government. About 2,400 people on the Boikunthapur Tea Estate, including labourers and their children, claimed they had been denied wages, rations and medical care, trapped in a form of modern day slavery. In January 2017, the group told SUHAKAM that the unannounced push into their ancestral lands in Johor National Park had violated their human rights and threatened to strip them of their livelihood. For almost four months they had survived on liquid extract from boiled rice, mashed tea leaves and chillies. The lone medical clinic on the estate had been closed for the previous six months and children of labourers had stopped going to school. SUHAKAM committed to immediately investigate the matter. As soon as the Commission received the tea workers’ complaint in August 2016, it sent a team of investigators to the Boikunthapur Tea Estate to gather evidence. The Commission then held a hearing, where the estate owner pledged to provide the workers with all outstanding wages and rations. As a newly-established NHRI, the APF has provided training and support to strengthen the Commission’s work to protect human rights and deliver redress for victims of violations. “We have heard their complaints and we will not keep quiet. We will investigate and take necessary action,” Commissioner Datuk Lok Yim Pheng told reporters. SUHAKAM has championed the rights of indigenous peoples for many years. It released the report of its national inquiry into the land rights of indigenous peoples in 2013 and has been a vocal advocate ever since. The APF played a pivotal role in supporting SUHAKAM’s national inquiry and placing the issue firmly on the national agenda. ANNUAL REPORT 2016–17 5