KITA-UKM Workshop on Contemporary Human Rights Issues in Malaysia


Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria (KITA-UKM) has been teaching a CITRA UKM Course entitled “Contemporary Issues in Human Rights in Malaysia”. Twenty eight under graduate students have registered for this in Semester Two (2017/2018).

The students self-divided into six groups based on human rights topics of their choice, including visiting a human rights related organisation. The course is an independent study with the lecturer providing introductory lectures but the student undertake a group study approach on thematic areas agreed upon.

The six human rights topics and organisations visited are:- 

Topic
Organisation
Number of students
UN system & human rights
UN country team in Malaysia
4
Enforcement Agencies
Bar Council Human Rights Committee
6
Ethnic discrimination
KOMAS
5
Universal Periodical Review (UPR)
COMANGO-Empower
4
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
WWF
4
Land rights & Indigenous People (Orang Asli)
SUHAKAM
5

On Dec 23, 2017 from 9am till 1pm at KITA-UKMthe students made presentations on the six thematic areas. All of the groups made power point presentations and handed their reports on the theme. This was a collective exercise in terms of the study, report writing and presentation.

From the lectures point of view Datuk Dr Denison Jayasooria noted that the students have taken the effort to read up and understand the issues. According to his impression he indicated that the field visits had made an impact upon the students, especially in their interaction with an activist or CSO person directly in the field. He further noted that at least one group had taken the extra mile to visit the organisation more than ones and participated in other activities hosted by them. In the case of three other study groups, they made use of case studies to illustrate human rights violations and compared these with the United Nations declarations/conventions and also in reference to the Federal Constitution. However at least two of the six groups had been asked to rewrite their papers as they had not dealt with the theme comprehensively and the students agreed to do so soon.


From the feedback received the students expressed that this course has enabled them to be exposed to alternative views and has opened up their minds.  A number said they will try and volunteer or undertake a field placement and one or two indicated that they might seek employment in them.

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