In Conjunction with the 30th Anniversary of Malaysia’s Signing of CEDAW
Gender equality in Malaysia must be recognised. We, the undersigned, reiterates that gender equality is a fundamental need in order to achieve a just and progressive society. While Malaysia’s ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) took place in 1995, forming crucial milestones towards protecting and advancing women’s rights, more needs to be done. Significant challenges remain, requiring urgent legal and policy reforms.
With the 30th anniversary of Malaysia’s signing of CEDAW and to reflect on all the efforts made to protect and build upon women’s rights, we wish to extend these efforts towards the protection of children in Malaysia as well.
It is trite that Malaysia’s Federal Constitution, under Article 8, guarantees equality before the law and prohibits discrimination on the grounds of gender. However, despite this constitutional safeguard, women and children continue to face systemic barriers in areas such as citizenship, family law, and protection from violence. Reforms are slow, despite successive changes of government, and there seems to be a lack of political will from both sides of the aisle to address the urgent need for revamping laws that protect and assure womenkind.
Recent developments in Malaysia have seen some institutional changes, such as the constitutional amendment allowing the automatic conferment of citizenship to children of Malaysian mothers born abroad, but these changes come with a heavy price: the amendment came with a side of regressive policies that oppress certain classes of children and foreign wives. It can only be concluded that the necessary reforms remain incomplete, demonstrating the need for radical legislative amendments to bring Malaysian up to date and in line with international human rights standards.
Internationally, Malaysia’s commitment to gender equality and children's rights extends beyond CEDAW. In the same year Malaysia acceded to the CEDAW, we also became a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), by which Malaysia has pledged to uphold the best interests of the child in all policies and legal frameworks. However, gaps remain, particularly in the enforcement of protections against child marriage and the recognition of the rights of stateless children. The recent rulings on unilateral religious conversion further highlight the need for legal clarity to prevent the exploitation of children’s rights under conflicting legal interpretations. In the spirit of these international commitments, Malaysia must take decisive action to harmonize our laws with global human rights principles and standards, ensuring that our women and children are fully protected.
As Wanita MCA and the Malaysian society come together to reaffirm our commitment to these crucial movements, we call on the Government of Malaysia to take immediate and concrete action on the following critical issues:
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End Unilateral Conversion of Children by an Ex-Spouse
- Amend existing laws. The requirement of both parents’ consent must be ensured for the religious conversion of a child; protecting parental rights along with the child’s best interest.
- In 2016, the Najib government wanted to amend the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act by introducing the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) (Amendment) Bill. It would contain a new Clause 88A, which states that if a parent converted to Islam, the religion of his children would remain the same unless both parents agreed to their conversion. However, under pressure from PAS, the Bill was withdrawn.
- Without the amendment of the LRA or Article 12 of the Federal Constitution to make this clear, the rule that Unilateral Conversion is Unconstitutional only relies on the decisions of the Court of Appeal/Federal Court and the judicial interpretation of the law by sitting judges, which may be overturned in future by overzealous judges.
- MCA previous statement on this matter
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Enact Gender Equality Act / Anti-Discrimination Against Women Bill
- Back in 2018, it was announced that the Government would table a Gender Equality Bill, which was renamed then Anti-discrimination Against Women Bill. As of 1 Nov 2023, the Bill was still said to be “under discussion” and that the Government required further study. We demand to know the current status of the Bill and its contents.
- Establish a comprehensive legal framework. Prohibit gender-based discrimination in education, the private and public all sectors and even in politics, to ensure equal opportunities and protection for women.
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Revamp the Sex Offenders Registry
- Strengthen the enforcement, accessibility, and transparency of the Sex Offenders Registry. Protect women and children from repeat offenders.
- Make the Sex Offenders Registry free and easily accessible online for all members of the Public. Make it compulsory for all sex offenders (against both children and women, and for those convicted locally as well as overseas) to register as a sex offender on the Sex Offenders Registry even for those convicted before 2017.
- Abolish the need to first obtain authorisation before being able to access the Sex Offenders Registry.
- MCA previous statement on this matter
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Abolish Marital Rape Exception (Section 375A of the Penal Code)
- Recognise Marital Rape as a crime. Provide full legal protection for all women against sexual violence, regardless of marital status.
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End Child Marriage
- Set the legal marriage age at 18 for all Malaysians. There must be no exceptions to protect young girls from forced and underaged marriages.
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Enforce Maintenance Orders
- Improve enforcement mechanisms. Ensure that divorced or separated women receive rightful financial support from their former spouses.
- Amend the Married Women and Children (Maintenance) Act 1950 to create a centralized mechanism or agency whereby a woman can enforce Maintenance Orders without having to hire a lawyer go through court.
- i.e. Singapore’s Family Courts have an easy-to-use online system to apply to have Maintenance Orders enforced, see: judiciary.gov.sg
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Improve Access to Affordable and Quality Childcare
- Implement policies and incentives to expand affordable childcare facilities that would enable women to fully participate in the workforce.
- Provide more subsidies or cash aid to needy families with working parents to pay for childcare, so that they won’t have to resort to cheap illegal and unqualified childcare centres that end up harming the child. For private sector they mainly only get double deduction and tax release for childcare (while there is currently a system for providing childcare subsidies, the threshold for non-civil servants to get the subsidy is very hard, your income bracket has to be hardcore low, and the subsidy is very small anyway).
- See here: malaysia.gov.my
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Increase Women’s Participation in Politics
- Introduce affirmative action measures, including quotas, to ensure greater representation of women in leadership and decision-making positions.
- [I think we should specify the quota in our Petition, as this is too general. There are two types of quotas: the law can either legally require parties to nominate a minimum percentage of women (example: French law requiring 50% of candidates on municipal election ballots to be women) or allocate a fixed percentage of parliamentary seats for wome (example: the 2003 Rwandan Constitution set a quota of 30% of Parliament seats for women)].
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Pass the Social Work Profession Bill
- Recognise and professionalise the Social Work Sector. Enhance support for vulnerable communities; including women facing domestic violence and discrimination.
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Strengthen Laws on Gender-Based Violence
We urge the Government of Malaysia to take decisive action to uphold gender equality, along with further protections, to fulfill its commitments under CEDAW.
Sign this petition to demand meaningful change for women and children in Malaysia.
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