Study: Malaysia Scores 5.8/10 for Safety from the State in Human Rights

In a recent study, a global rights monitor found that Malaysians had less freedom to feel safe from their government, with an increased risk of being persecuted or worse by the authorities.

According to Human Rights Measurement Initiative’s (HRMI) Index Right Tracker 2024, in 2023, the score for freedom from extrajudicial execution dropped to 6.8 out of 10, down from 7.5 in 2022, showing a decline after consistent improvement since 2019.

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Safety from the state

Malaysia’s safety from the state score of 5.8/10 suggests that a lot of people might be at risk of things such as getting arrested without reason, being tortured or mistreated, disappearing, or even being executed or killed without a fair trial.

While there is lack of data across East Asia and Pacific countries for a regional comparison of civil and political rights, Malaysia’s performance on the right to be safe from the state is close to average within the sample countries.

Based on the report, human rights practitioners say Malaysia scored 7/10 for protecting people from forced disappearance.

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Malaysia had a consistent 10/10 rating from death penalty

In recent years, Malaysia’s score for arbitrary arrests has been inconsistent. It was 6.1 in 2019, dropped to 5.8 in 2020, rose back to 6.1 in 2021, and then gradually fell to 5.2 out of 10 in 2022, which is lower than the previous year.

Over the past 5 years, Malaysia has maintained a consistent 10/10 rating for the right to freedom from the death penalty. In 2023, the country also saw a steady improvement in the rights to freedom from torture and ill-treatment, scoring 5.6 out of 10 compared to 5.5 the previous year.

4 grades were used in the HRMI tracker, which includes very bad, bad, fair, and good.

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Also read: Study: Malaysia is the 20th Oldest Population in Asia, Yet Forever Young at Heart!