Sunday, December 19, 2010

Refugees are facing Caning in Malaysia

Despite the fact that under international law corporal punishment is "clearly illegal" and "amounts to torture", Malaysian law not only provides for punishment by caning (known as 'whipping') for at least 66 offences but Malaysian authorities have in recent years even further expanded the list of offences punishable by caning to include illegal entry into the country and drug abuse, stress MEPs in their resolution.

Strongly condemning all forms of corporal punishment including caning, which they classify as "a remnant of colonial rule", MEPs urges Malaysia to enact a moratorium on caning and all forms of corporal punishment in all cases, with a view to their abolition in law and in practice.

Furthermore, Parliament calls on Malaysia, as a member of UN Human Rights Council, to ratify the UN Convention against Torture and its Optional Protocol and to amend Malaysian law so that immigration offences are treated as administrative offences, rather than crimes punishable by imprisonment or corporal punishment, and that drug-related offences are no longer punishable by caning.

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