I want to begin by commending ERA Consumer for organising this programme, a programme that ERA has organised for three years in a row to evaluate the role of Suhakam (the human rights commission of Malaysia).

National consultations such as this helps Suhakam to be responsive to the demands of civil society and forces Suhakam to be accountable for its actions and policies.

I would like to focus on three issues pertaining to economic, social and cultural rights.

First, I want to outline the status of these rights in the country as indicated in Suhakam's annual report for 2002.

Second, I want to put forward the notion of the right to development as the basis in which to evaluate economic, social and cultural rights issues.

Third, I want to raise the issue of the right to water. The right to water will be violated if the water resources of the country are privatised. There is an urgent need to have a national debate and Suhakam should recommend to the government not to privatise water resources since access to water is a fundamental human right.

Indigenous people

First, two ECOSOC (United Nations Economic and Social Council) rights issue were discussed in the report. It pertains to the violation of the rights of indigenous people and the access to education in the context of the Convention on the Rights of Children (CRC).

It must be pointed out that ECOSOC rights coverage in the annual report constitutes only about six pages of the total 132-page report. Five of the six pages were dedicated to discussing the violation of the rights of indigenous people.

Suhakam's report focuses on its investigation of the government's failure to resolve problems of native and customary land rights of the indigenous people or Orang Asal since this was affecting their livelihood.

Furthermore, the Orang Asal were not consulted on the development projects carried out in their own land. They have been relocated (destroying family structure) and their land often exploited by outside companies or government agencies.

Important to note that the Orang Asal are the poorest community in the country, with the lowest income and about 80 percent of the Orang Asal live below the poverty line.

Suhakam organised three seminars - Sarawak, Sabah and Kuala Lumpur - in order to address these concerns and to identify 'friends of Suhakam' from the representatives of the Orang Asal.

The report indicates that three seminars were organised to inculcate awareness of human rights among the Orang Asal; and the 'friends of Suhakam' grouping was established. The purpose of the group is to communicate with Suhakam concerning the planning, implementation of issues that have been identified in the various seminars.

The annual report also indicates that children in Malaysia are being denied access to education. The children come from vulnerable groups such as the indigenous community, people of disabilities and children living with HIV/Aids. Suhakam organised a one-day seminar for agencies working with children.

Unfortunately, there is nothing more to be said about ECOSOC rights discussion in Suhakam's 2002 annual report.

Crucial responsibility

I tthink Suhakam's responsibility is extremely important in the area of economic, social and cultural rights in the country. Suhakam should take his responsibility seriously.

This is because economic, social and cultural rights in the country have worsened. Also, economic, social and cultural rights are fundamental to human development.

Poverty-linked violence is increasing; there is a fear that access to water will be denied as a result of privatisation, loss of native and customary land; costly health care, the Malaysian worker has become substitutable, flexible and disposable as a result of globalisation, mother tongue education is under attack, people are staying in temporary houses for 15 years before being relocated to another temporary home.

We need to put forward the notion of the right to development in the way we think through economic, social and cultural Rights. The right to development analysis indicates that poverty, denying people access to water and racial discrimination suffered by the poor, including the Orang Asal is a serious violation of their human rights and it contributes to unsustainable development of the community.

This is because poverty denies people the right to basic needs to sustain a decent standard of living and quality of life. Furthermore, poverty and violence in the Indian Malaysian community (as in other poor communities) are linked to a general lack of control over resources, land, skills/competencies, credit and capital, knowledge and social networks.

It also indicates the lack of influence of the Malaysian poor over government decision-making. Without these resources, the poor are neglected by policy makers and have limited access to enabling institutions, markets, employment and public services.

Clearly, then achieving equitable progress requires acknowledging the interdependence between respect for human rights, sustainable development and democracy.

The right to development analysis indicates that - poverty, decreasing real wages or inability to organise unions or state victimisation of workers - is a violation of their human rights. This is because poverty and laws that deny workers the right to unionise denies people the right to sustain a decent standard of living and quality of life.

Mutual development

The right to development strategy provides the basis for moral legitimacy and social justice to the objectives of human development. It allows us to evaluate a government on the basis of its contribution to the right to development.

It allows us to determine the legitimacy of a government based on its ability to realize the right to development of all citizens, particularly the poor and vulnerable communities.

What is the right to development? The right to development brings together notions of human rights and human development in order to realise an enabling and sustainable environment. Put differently, human development can only be achieved through the realisation of all human rights.

Here, both human rights and human development mutually and collectively expand people's capabilities and choices and at the same time protect peoples' rights and fundamental freedoms. Without the recognition of these rights and without provision for enabling their exercise, sustainable development cannot be achieved.

Strategies for creating an enabling environment for the sustainable development:

The right to human development should be at the heart of the countries development strategy.

The notions of right to development as a human right should lie at the heart of any national development or poverty elimination strategy. When a government fails to protect its citizens from poverty, the need to protect and enhance economic, social and cultural rights becomes an imperative.

The present development strategy is seriously unsustainable as it discriminates and promotes further marginalisation of politically weak minorities such as the Indian Malaysian and Orang Asal communities. Thus, for the vulnerable communities, the rights approach becomes central to its development process.

The rights approach transcends race-based development and poverty eradication strategies. This is because the rights approach is an inclusive approach. It responds to and encompasses all communities and people who are classified as poor and vulnerable and thus does not segregate or discriminate based on race. A rights approach is color blind and is built on the principle that all human rights are for all people.

A rights approach will make government accountable in distributing the national wealth equitably. The poor and vulnerable communities should be perceived as legitimate citizens of the country, and be accorded their rightful share of national wealth. The government should not consider vulnerable communities as children of a lesser god and it should not take advantage of its political vulnerability.

Denying people the right to development contributes to the marginalisation of poor communities from the political processes and as a result the country inherits a weak citizenry. Society in turn, is deprived of these people's contribution. In short, to continue denying people the right to development by creating and sustaining a disenabling environment for their development will be not only a violation of their human rights but also a lost of human resources.

The notion of the right to development puts the state on notice, its role in creating an enabling environment for the development of its citizens especially vulnerable groups as a matter of human right. In fact, the right to development notion should demand a legal and institutional commitment on the part of the government for a better quality of life and standard of living for all people.

The right to development approach would suggest that the provisioning of essential services such as water, electricity, healthcare and education should be considered a fundamental human right and as a constitutional responsibility of the state to its citizens. There should be an effort to reverse the privatisation of essential services since these services constitute necessary social safety protection of vulnerable communities, especially in periods of crisis.

Bill of rights

Suhakam should consider proposing a national bill of rights consistent to poverty eradication and the right to development. The bill of rights should entail economic, social and cultural rights relating to income distribution, access to land, housing, health care, adequate safe, and nutritious food, water, social security and education.

The bill of rights should ensure that poverty eradication becomes a legally binding responsibility for which the State is responsible. Moreover, the government must be legally mandated to report to Parliament on the measures it has taken to realise the bill.

Suhakam should play an important role in the protection and promotion of the right to development.

It should assist and encourage the embracing of the right to development through:

a) the scrutiny of existing laws, administrative decisions and state policies as well as draft bills in order to ensure that they are consistent with the demands of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966 (but came into force in 1976);

b) the promotion of education and awareness on the right to development among the public, government services, the private sector, the judiciary, labor movement, etc;

c) the identification of national level benchmarks against which the realisation of covenant obligations can be measured; and

d) the conducting of research/ inquiries, and monitoring compliance in order to ascertain the extent to which particular economic, social, and cultural rights are being violated in relation to communities of particular vulnerabilities.

Water woes

Access to water is a fundamental human right. There is an on-going effort to privatise the water resources in the country. There is no denying that there is a need for efficient water resource management in the country. But water resources should not be subject to private ownership and full cost recovery.

By transforming water, a common and social good into an economic good would mean that access to water would depend on affordability and not based on need. This would favor the rich and victimise the poor.

Access to water should not be left to the market. Water is a critical resource for the reproduction of the individual and sustainable livelihood and thus is a human right and should not be privatised. The state has an important role in ensuring that the country's water resources remain in the hands of the public sector.

In November 2002, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its General Comment No 15 indicated that the right to water was a human right. International human rights laws require that governments take immediate steps, such as the formulation and implementation of domestic and international policies and resource allocations, to realize the right to water. Governments have a responsibility to respect, fulfill and protect this right.

Moreover, international human rights also require that governments are held accountable for their conduct in relation to their human right obligations. Water as an essential public good takes priority over water as an economic commodity.

Suhakam has to exercise its political will and act according to internationally accepted standards of human rights. It must recommend to the government that privatisation of water resources would constitute a violation of human rights and create a disenabling environment of poor families in the country.

The above speech was delivered at the ERA Consumer programme entitled: Suhakam after three years: Recommendations for the promotion and protection of human rights and government response.