With amendments made to the Suhakam Act 1999, Children’s Commissioner Farah Nini says can now affect real changes

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 21): Children’s Commissioner Farah Nini Dusuki is relieved the amendment to the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) Act 1999 has given the Children’s Commission the ability to make some real changes.

Speaking to Malay Mail, Farah expressed excitement that there will be two more children commissioners stationed in East Malaysia — pointing to how the issues there are unique to the states’ geographical area and different ethnic communities.

“I think I feel very much settled because of the statutory amendment because before this we were not anywhere in any statute,” Farah told Malay Mail in a recent interview.

“So previously, our establishment is really [just]administrative, and we have been parked under the Suhakam Act, under the broad umbrella of Suhakam, but now that is specifically entrenched.”

The new amendments to the Act, among others include inserting a new section — Section 6A.

Under Section 6A, subsection (1) says the Yang di-Pertuan Agong “shall designate from amongst the members of the Commission (Suhakam) appointed under Section 5, a Chief Children’s Commissioner and two Children’s Commissioners to deal with human rights matters relating to children”.

Farah, who was appointed for a three-year term effective March this year, added that it is not good enough to have just one commissioner from Peninsular Malaysia to make rounds in Sabah and Sarawak as and when cases happen.

“It is not good enough to only visit the ground as and when cases happen.

“To be able to affect real changes you really have to be there. And I would like to think that — my dream for the Office of Children Commission, is that we are not just reacting, as in we not only react to issues, my plan is that we actually struggle and work very hard and strive towards empowering children, because if we empower children adequately, then a lot of the problems that we have today, I believe, will not be as significant as it is now.”

She gave the example of empowering children at a very young age on what constitutes unsafe touches, which can then bring down the number of reported cases of child sexual abuse since the children then know from the start that these are not acceptable.

“So we hope to have a special curriculum on safe and unsafe touches [in schools]and then the children will know that if they are feeling uncomfortable, they will go run and tell,” Farah said.

Farah said the country may have good laws, but the public is not aware of the existence of these laws.

“We have fairly good and comprehensive laws on children, and we kept on revising, and we have new laws passed that are excellent laws.

“But then again, people don’t know about it. Do you know that you have a duty under the law to report to the police? If let’s say, a child tells you that somebody has fondled or molested her, you don’t have a choice of whether or not to report].

“People cannot say maybe in the child’s best interest, they keep quiet, you don’t have a choice, you have to make a police report and that’s the requirement under Section 19 of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017,” she said.

Farah said the amendments to the Act were major and one of the clauses was added specifically for the Children Commission.

“That is a major amendment because before this there have been instances whereby you want to enter premises and it has been denied.

“So with this new amendment, as long as we comply with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) they cannot disallow us,” she said.

The amendment to the Suhakam Act consists of 11 clauses and was passed in the Dewan Rakyat last November.

Farah who has over 30 years of experience in the field of human rights and child law, obtained her doctorate from Cardiff University, Wales, in the United Kingdom in 2002 with a thesis that analysed socio-legal issues to protect children from abuse and neglect.

Her research areas include legislation on criminal justice, child law, adolescent protection in sexual reproductive health issues as well as the implementation and enforcement of children’s rights in Malaysia. — Malay Mail