
NGOs lament that country still practises a punitive system as opposed to a rehabilitative one. Pic taken from FMT News
Sep 24 — PETALING JAYA: Human rights NGOs are urging the government to ratify the United Nation’s convention against torture.
Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) commissioner Jerald Joseph said that according to research his NGO conducted two years ago covering 15 years of torture in the country, 255 deaths in custody were recorded.
However according to official police records only two were due to police misconduct.
“Other reasons given were due to health reasons, brain damage, and suicide among others,” he said at a forum on the United Nation’s convention against torture at The School in Jaya One here today.
“Do you expect us to believe that 30 of these gangsters and hardened criminals committed suicide while in custody?”
According to Jerald, some of the reasons given as to why the government was still reluctant to ratify the convention was because the country still implemented whipping as a form of punishment and caning of students in schools. Read more