Topic: 2025 – Treatment of Prisoners
Country: Malaysia
Delegate Name: Jay Jariwala
Human Rights Committee
Treatment of Prisoners
Federal Republic of Malaysia
Jay Jariwala
Forest Hills Eastern
Addressing the issue of the treatment of prisoners is necessary because of the problems at hand. In Malaysia, the treatment of prisoners has always been harsh. We believe that for crimes committed, the best way to prevent individuals from committing them again is to harshly punish them. Malaysia has a problem with providing adequate medical care and overcrowding, as well as borderline torture. This is a problem because without those people, even if they are criminals, they are not being given these birthrights. Lack of oversight, untrained doctors for these situations, and overcrowding are major reasons why the treatment of prisoners is so poor. Overcrowding has caused diseases to spread rapidly, while untrained doctors cannot treat people as they don’t have adequate knowledge of drugs, injuries, or other harmful things that occur in prisons, and the lack of oversight is due to the government’s prohibition of NGOs or individuals from overseeing the prison. This leaves a lack of witnesses for possible abuse that can’t be seen. The UN has taken many actions to improve the treatment of prisoners, such as the Nelson Mandela Rules, which talk about setting a framework for prisons, and what their minimum treatment of prisoners should be.
Malaysia is impacted, but it is not impacted that heavily. Inside the prisons, overcrowding often occurs, so if a disease is caught, it usually spreads to almost everyone. This could be a major issue for Malaysia, but as long as it’s contained within the prisons, it poses little risk to other civilians. Many people have claimed to be tortured or seen it firsthand, as caning is a common practice in prisons. In most cases, however, this is inflicted only on prisoners who have committed severe crimes. Malaysia’s system on the topic of the treatment of prisoners is very diverse. It serves extreme punishments to those who commit atrocious crimes while delivering appropriate punishment for crimes of less severity. Many of the people in prison are there for drug-related crimes, so as a way to help, Malaysia has started participating in the creation of rehabilitation programs and other programs to help develop life skills that can help once they have been released. In addition to physical rehabilitation, they are also offering spiritual and religious rehabilitation for those who want to reintegrate themself with their religion.
Malaysia’s goal in all of this is to improve the standard of living for prisoners, and they are slowly taking steps to do that. We propose that countries such as Malaysia can request other nearby countries that have existing programs to take in a few prisoners. This would help countries with developing prison systems, still keep prisoners incarcerated, while also providing rehabilitation that was previously not available to them. Of course, accepting the prisoners would need to be approved by the nation of the fostering government, but it would still allow nations in development to develop more easily while keeping the standard of living high. We believe that all people should be treated with basic rights, and that proposing this solution would help us and others like us strive closer to that goal.
