Brown Bag Lunch Series

Speaker: Andrew Khoo, Chair of the Malaysian Bar Council’s Human Rights Committee

Having recently completed its second Universal Periodic Review with the UN Human Rights Council, Malaysia has a clear roadmap forward for securing and protecting its citizens’ human rights. However, advocates in country continue to complain of police abuse, restrictions on the right to freedom of assembly, and other serious violations. Andrew Khoo, Chair of the Malaysian Bar Council’s Human Rights Committee, will discuss the current human rights situation in Malaysia, highlighting recent events, and will lay out the most serious challenges facing human rights activists today.

Kosher pizza will be served.

Andrew Khoo has been in legal practice in Malaysia for almost 19 years.  He is a member of Bar Council Malaysia, the governing body of the Malaysian Bar comprising nearly 16,000 practising advocates and solicitors.  Since March 2009 he has served as Chair/Co-Chair of the Human Rights Committee (BCHRC).

In that capacity he has been at the forefront of the work of the Malaysian Bar, through the BCHRC, taking up public advocacy and other activities on numerous human rights issues in Malaysia including: the right to life (including ending the use of the mandatory death penalty); anti-trafficking in persons; rights and protections for refugees and asylum seekers; ending detention without trial; promoting transparency and accountability of law enforcement agencies and the establishment of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission; campaigning for Malaysia’s membership of the International Criminal Court; exploring Malaysia’s human rights record through the Universal Periodic Review Process before the United Nations Human Rights Council; protecting religious freedom and freedom of assembly/information/expression; promoting rights of persons with disabilities; and implementing democratic reform and strengthening the electoral process.  The BCHRC’s work also includes monitoring of public assemblies and rallies in various parts of Malaysia and reporting on human rights violations.

Andrew has represented the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM) in 6 watching briefs before the apex Federal Court, Court of Appeal and High Court.  He has also worked with SUHAKAM on various issues such as legal empowerment of the poor as a development issue under the Millennium Development Goals, child rights, the position of the LGBT community in Malaysia, deaths in police custody, the formation of an independent coroner’s court, and to get Malaysia to accede to the ICCPR, ICESCR, ICERD, CAT and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.  He was an independent consultant to SUHAKAM’s recent 2-year National Inquiry into the Land Rights of Indigenous People, which looked at challenges and conflicts in the ownership and use of native customary rights land, including issues of land encroachment and environmental degradation, and is now a member of a government-appointed task force looking into implementation of recommendations from that National Inquiry.  He has appeared as watching brief counsel before a SUHAKAM public inquiry in relation to the arrest of 5 lawyers at Brickfields Police Station, and also as watching brief counsel before another SUHAKAM public inquiry in relation to the BERSIH 3.0 public assembly.  He has briefed Members of Parliament on the death penalty, the position of refugees in Malaysia, the DNA Identification bill, the Personal Data Protection bill and the International Criminal Court, and spoken in parliamentary forums on proposed amendments to the University and University Colleges Act 1971, and the United Nations Universal Periodic Review of Malaysia in 2009 and 2013.  He has also addressed the issue of human rights in Malaysia at the United Nations Human Rights Council and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, both in Geneva, at the European Union in Brussels, as well as regionally and domestically.

On 10 December 2013, he was awarded the International Human Rights Day 2013 Community Award (Individual) by the Malaysian Human Rights Commission in recognition of a proven track record in promoting and advancing human rights in the Community on a non-profit basis.

Brown Bag Lunch Series