Bar Council: Govt must act on reports of Penan girls being raped

The Star

BY LOH FOON FONG
foonfong@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: The Bar Council is disappointed with the Government’s continued lack of political will in ensuring that the welfare and rights of indigenous people throughout Malaysia are protected.

Its president Ragunath Kesavan said the Government’s inaction makes a mockery of its vote in favour of adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007, he said.

“We strongly urge the Government to perform its duty by taking concrete steps to improve the welfare of the indigenous peoples,” he said in a statement Friday.

Ragunath said the Bar Council was disappointed with the Government’s initial refusal to make public the report of the National Task Force established to investigate the allegations of sexual abuse against the Penan women and girls.

He also said they were disappointed that despite the Inspector-General of Police’s pledge of full support for a joint police-NGO investigation mission, the Sarawak police had reportedly stated that the funds allocated for the project were not sufficient for the NGOs participation.

“The sexual abuse faced by the Penans is but one of a multitude of human rights violations that indigenous communities face on an ongoing basis,” he said.

Ragunath said the Bar Council was concerned that many indigenous communities still live without basic amenities and infrastructure and were deprived of their rights to ancestral lands and access to basic services have made them vulnerable to sexual abuse and other human rights violations.

“The Goverment must fulfill its state obligations by formally recognising, protecting and guaranteeing the rights of indigenous peoples to their ancestral lands throughout the country and gazetting such ancestral lands as reserved areas for them,” he said.

The Bar Council also denounced the arrest of 15 Sarawakian indigenous leaders on Sept 16 who were reportedly detained as they tried to deliver a memorandum to the Chief Minister to protest the building of hydro-electric dams that would adversely affect their communities, he said.