LETTERS: Only yesterday I wrote about Malaysia's pending accession to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) as a test for the council's respect for diversity and recognition of the right of states to determine for their own peoples.
Also, on how to address human rights concerns effectively and in accordance with their own beliefs and traditions.
This is so given the extensive influence of organisations that act as instruments of ideological neo-colonialism that impose Western understanding and cultural norms on societies to whom they are alien and incompatible.
These organisations, I pointed out, either themselves originate from the West such as the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International or local organisations receiving foreign funding that repeat their talking points.
The UNHRC, I am happy to note, has passed the test. Out of 193 nations voting, Malaysia secured the support of 183 nations, an absolute majority just shy of universal support.
This, it must be said, represents a near universal rejection of the tenets of unilateralism championed by the West which considers that human rights concerns are uniform, and that no distinction between different cultures, values and traditions should be allowed to permeate human rights discourse and implementation.
The Centre for Human Rights Research and Advocacy (CENTHRA) is proud of the achievements of Malaysia in the human rights arena that has led to it securing for another time a seat at the UNHRC.
This is a reflection of the international community defers in views and ideas on how best to approach human rights. It is indeed a victory for the kind of diversity that matters most in this increasingly woke world, that is diversity of thought.
Now that Malaysia has been given a seat at the UNHRC, I, for one, hope that we do not rest on our laurels but continue to promote our own understanding of what human rights are all about and how they are to be approached.
From issues such as LGBTQ rights to how freedom of religion is to be respected and realised, we need to initiate dialogue and foster understanding on how issues deemed sensitive and taboo ought to be approached, having in mind the values we affirm collectively as a nation.
In any event, I believe that the world is finally starting to realise that the old universalist approach being propounded by the West is untenable and that the cultural relativist one is the way to go.
For what better way is there to realise human rights, when the human element, which includes culture and norms, is included therein?
It is time we move forward from a narrow view of human rights based on solely the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to one that also considers documents such as the Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam and the Asean Human Rights Declaration.
CENTHRA looks forward to working with the government and people of Malaysia in ensuring that Malaysia's term in the UNHRC will not be a missed opportunity to showcase to the world how human rights can be made to function in harmony with local beliefs and traditions.
AZRIL MOHD AMIN
Founder, Centre for Human Rights Research & Advocacy (CENTHRA)
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times