Mission of PGA to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 10-13 June 2015
From 10 to 13 June, PGA conducted a field mission on the abolition of the death penalty and the fight against impunity in the margins of the South-East Asia Regional Congress on the abolition of the death penalty organized by Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort (ECPM) on 11 and 12 June, a regional congress which gathered more than 200 participants from the region and worldwide, to discuss the most pressing issues related to the abolition of the death penalty in South-East Asia. The mission aimed to generate political will on the abolition of the death penalty and will the ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The mission consisted of Hon. Mario Marazziti, MP, Chair of the Human Rights Committee, Chamber of Deputies of Italy, Mr. Kula M. Kulasegaran, MP, Secretary of the PGA National Group and Ms. Maia Trujillo, Senior Program Officer and Campaign Manager of the PGA Parliamentary Platform against the Death Penalty (International Law and Human Rights Program) representing the PGA Secretariat.
On 10 June, the PGA Secretariat participated in a Parliamentary Side-event to the Congress on the abolition of the death penalty hosted by Hon. Tian Chang Chua, MP, Member of PGA during which other PGA Members were present to discuss on the situation and impact of the death penalty in Malaysia as well as on the role of Parliamentarians.
On 11 June, at the end of the first day of the Congress, the PGA National Group of Malaysia met with Mr. Mario Marazziti, MP and Ms. Maia Trujillo, under the leadership of Hon. Dato Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz, MP, Chair of the National Group and the collaboration of Hon. M. Kula M. Kulasegaran, MP, Secretary of the National Group gathered 7 PGA Members, including Hon. Ms. Nancy Shukri, MP, Minister of Law and Vice Chair of the National Group.
The meeting aimed to provide an update and overview of PGA's Programs and Campaigns and to discuss issues related to the fight against impunity and the abolition of the death penalty.
Hon. Kula Segaran, MP, and Hon. Nazri recalled the activities and actions taken over the years by the PGA National Group to achieve ratification of the Rome Statute of the Internaitonal Criminal Court (ICC) and the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) by Malaysia as well as to abolish the death penalty.
In light of the importance to fight against impunity, PGA Members unanimously supported the swift adoption of the Rome Statute as well as its implementation to ensure the effective operation of the principle of complementarity and the strengthening of the Rule of Law.
Based on those considerations PGA Members had participated in several activities organised by PGA to express their commitment to the ratification. In particular, Hon. Nazri, then Minister of Law, announced his political commitment to bring Malaysia into the Rome Statute during his participation to the Kampala Review Conference in May 2010 and the 6th Consultative Assembly of Parliamentarians for the ICC. On 9 and 10 March 2011, thanks to the support of its National Group, PGA organised the second PGA Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Consultation on the Universality of the Rome Statute held in the Parliament of Malaysia, which led a few days later to the Cabinet’s Council decision to accede to the Rome Statute.
The Attorney General of Malaysia, Mr. Tan Sri Pathil, has unfortunately always opposed the action, although all his arguments were addressed and rebutted by PGA Members. Following the downing of flight MH17 on 17 July 2014, a unique bipartisan resolution was adopted in Parliament on the “Access to Justice for Victims of the Downing of Malaysia Airline Flight MH 17 over Ukraine » calling for the ratification of the Rome Statute.
On 26 May 2015, Hon. Kula Segaran posed a parliamentary question on the reasons for the delays in the ratification of the Rome Statute, to which the first answer was the lack of implementing legislation allowing for ratification. Although a draft implementing legislation has been supposedly prepared by the Attorney General, it has not yet been sent to Parliament for examination and adoption, in spite of the already existing approval fir the ratification by the Cabinet in 2011.
Regarding the Arms Trade Treaty, a similar question was asked to the Attorney General during that session, who answered that some definitions in the ATT needed to be clarified and that a guideline is needed to facilitate its implementation. PGA Members expressed their support and commitment to a swift ratification of the ATT by Malaysia.
On the death penalty, the new PGA Parliamentary Platform to abolish the death penalty was presented to the National Group and in particular the launch of a targeted Campaign in Malaysia to abolish the death penalty. Indeed, in light of Parliamentarians’ crucial role to play in the promotion and the advancement the Platform for the abolition aims to support, enhance and maximize the impact of the individual initiatives of parliamentarians worldwide on the abolition of the death penalty, as well as to launch and coordinate targeted actions in selected countries, by raising the awareness of Parliamentarians, strengthening political will and providing technical assistance for parliamentary initiatives aiming to generate a national political appropriation, awareness and understanding of the implications of abolition-processes.
PGA Members recalled that there is a strong movement to abolish the death penalty in Malaysia, including at parliamentary level, as highlighted by the declarations of Hon. Nazri in 2010 (then Minister of Law), that the Government was considering abolishing the death penalty for drug related offenses. Also, Hon. Nancy Shukri informed the members that she had written to the Attorney General to seek information on the status of a study undertaken by the AG’s Chambers on the use of the mandatory death penalty for drugs. On 9 June the Attorney General replied that the study was still on-going as the Executive council led by the chief minister to advise the Head of State had asked for more information after having received the first draft of the research. PGA Members regretted these supplementary delays on this issue.
PGA Members in Malaysia and Mario Marazziti engaged in a fruitful exchange during which an important link was made between the Rome Statute of the ICC and the death penalty. Indeed, Mr. Mario Marazziti underlined that no matter how serious a crime can be, the death penalty can never be the appropriate sentence, as even for crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the Rome Statute does not provide for the death penalty, let alone for more « ordinary crimes ». PGA’s work on the ratification and implementation of the Rome Statute to ensure mechanisms to end impunity and enable access to justice for victims and the new PGA Parliamentary Platform on the abolition of the death penalty are therefore complementary and mutually reinforcing to ensure a “rules-based international order” in which all human rights are respected, including the first one of all: the right to life.
PGA Members therefore recognised the need to abolish the death penalty in the long term, and to start working on the repealing of the mandatory death penalty, which currently concerns crimes of murder, drug-trafficking, waging war against the King and acts of terrorism, including carrying firearms, even if it results in no deaths.
The need to engage with the public to create awareness was particularly highlighted, as well as with religious leaders, the media, civil society and other relevant actors, including regional organisations such as the ASEAN. The role of Parliamentarians as leaders who have the ability to encourage a change in the public opinion and who have the prerogative of drafting legislation and national policies was particularly highlighted.
During the meeting strategies and actions were decided to move forward on those three issues:
- Creation of a Working Committee within the National Group to speed up the process of accession to the Rome Statute and the ATT as soon as possible.
- Meeting of the Working Committee with the Attorney General to urge him to transmit the draft implementation bill to Parliament to allow for an executive decision on ratification. The date of 17 July 2015 was decided as symbolic for this transmission so as to mark the 17th anniversary of the adoption of the Rome Statute of 17 July 1998 (International Justice Day) and mainly the first anniversary of the tragic downing of Flight MH 17 over the skies of Ukraine
- Organisation of a Parliamentary Seminar on the abolition of the death penalty (with the Bar Council) in the Parliament of Malaysia in November 2015 to explore the steps leading to abolition, in particular of the mandatory death penalty
In addition, during the meeting, PGA Members unanimously approved PGA’s new initiative to fight against child marriage by signing the Global Parliamentary Declaration to End Child, Early and Forced Marriage.
Finally, the PGA Secretariat represented by Ms. Maia Trujillo participated on 13 June to the General Assembly of the World Coalition against the death penalty of which PGA is a member since 2014, to discuss about strategies and orientations of the work of the Coalition.