Politics requires the skill to integrate the real with the ideal. However you may interpret Qur’anic statements of the rights of human beings, merging them into our body politic may be the most difficult demand of Articles 3(1) and 37(1) of our Federal Constitution, which positions Islam as the religion of the federation. And this demand is recently being more seriously addressed in Putrajaya.Continue reading “Malaysia’s Universal Agenda”
Tag Archives: human rights
CENTHRA: Towards an equitable and just human rights foundation
The idea of human rights has an extensive history, but only in the past century has the global community pursued to galvanize a regime to promote and protect them. In particular, since the United Nations (UN) was founded in 1945, world leaders have collaborated to codify human rights in a universally recognized regime of treaties, institutions, and norms. Among the Muslim-majority nations, most recently, in June 2011, the Organisation of Islāmic Cooperation (OIC) established the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission, with the aim to “advance human rights” and “support the Member States’ efforts to merge civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.” These recent developments call for Islāmic Non-Governmental Organizations (NGIs) to articulate the Islāmic views on human rights to offer alternate views to the global human rights movement.
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CENTHRA: Towards broadening the human rights debate
The “Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy”, or CENTHRA, has been established by the Coalition of Islamic NGOs (NGIs) in the UPR process (MuslimUPRO) as a full-fledged “think tank” focusing on human rights from the Islāmic perspective. The Centre’s primary objective is to provide a proper platform to articulate Malaysia’s model of human rights, while generalizing as well to the broader perspective of defense of the human rights debate within all non-secular cultures. These non-secular cultures are statistically in the majority, after all, within the human community.Continue reading “CENTHRA: Towards broadening the human rights debate”
MuslimUPRo welcomes new OIC Secretary General
Dr. Iyad Amin Madani, the OIC’s new Secretary General, has issued a welcome and concise statement on human rights issues at a recent meeting of the OIC IPHRC (Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission). Noting the urgent need for a form of measurement of the distance between the Islamic model of human rights and local laws and practices of various UN member countries, he details a number of specific matters in which the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) has gone well beyond Islamic limitations, even though most OIC countries take part in the UDHR.Continue reading “MuslimUPRo welcomes new OIC Secretary General”
Penderitaan Rohingya: Perlunya tindakan lebih berkesan
Diterbitkan di sini.
Mesyuarat Peringkat Tertinggi Pertubuhan Negara-negara Asia Tenggara (ASEAN) ke-21 yang diadakan di Pnom Penh pada 18-19 November 2012 telah mezahirkan keazaman politik baru rantau ini dengan termeterainya Perisytiharan Hak Asasi Manusia (HAM) ASEAN atau ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (AHRD) yang melakar sejarah kewujudan rantau yang strategik ini.
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The Human Rights Tradition in Islam: A Book review by Murad Wilfried Hofmann
The Human Rights Tradition in Islam By Muddathir ‘Abd al-Rahim. Westport, USA: Praeger Publishers, 2005. Pp257. ISBN: 0275980456. Reviewed by Murad Wilfried Hofmann.
This book is the third of a series produced by Praeger on Human Rights in the world’s major religions, i.e in the Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist traditions. Its Sudanese author, Dr. ‘Abd al-Rahim, since 1997 professor of political sciences and Islamic studies at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC) in Kuala Lumpur, is eminently suited for presenting this subject, given his first hand knowledge of both East and West and his previous diplomatic career.
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Press Release | SUHAKAM urges Human Rights Compliance: Surrender or Enrichment?
On 27th December 2013, the Malaysian Bar issued a statement in support of the call by the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (“SUHAKAM”), and its Chairman, Tan Sri Hasmy Agam, for Malaysia to look seriously into accelerating the pace of ratification of the six remaining core United Nations instruments on human rights. I wish to reply to some of the issues mentioned in the statement. Relevant Malaysian Bar’s points in italics, my comments in plain font.
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Western Human Rights and Freedom
At the recent Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session held in Geneva on 24th October 2013, it was clear that many Western countries were pressuring Malaysia to sign and ratify certain international human rights treaties; including the ones that allow for unbridled freedom of religion (such as Article 18 of ICCPR on freedom of religion). There were also calls from at least 5 countries for Malaysia to abolish her anti-sodomy laws (section 377A of the Penal Code and the various Shariah enactments); this eventually for allowing same-sex marriage. Indeed, Western countries are willing to go to the extent of overriding the sovereignty of nations in propagating ‘universal standards’ of human rights achievements.
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