Citizenship is a vital human right, especially to children, as other rights such as livelihood, education, healthcare, and employment depend on whether a person is a citizen or otherwise. Citizenship of children born outside of the country is an issue throughout the world, not just in Malaysia. While many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and others, have granted equal rights to children born abroad to mothers or fathers who are citizens of those countries, this is not the case in Malaysia. In conducting the qualitative method, this study referred to online databases for judicial decisions and legislations such as the LexisNexis and CLJ, online newspapers, journal articles, textbooks, conference papers, and published theses and dissertation. International law instruments such as the Convention on the Rights of Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The major findigs of this Article is that Malaysian citizenship law is patriarchal, as children of Malaysian fathers born overseas are entitled to be citizens under the operation of the law. Notably, Malaysian mothers are not entitled to such rights. This article discusses the constitutional provisions on citizenship in Malaysia and the challenges faced by children born overseas to Malaysian mothers with regard to education, healthcare, employment and property ownership. This Article also highlights courts' decisions which show the willingness to recognise gender equality in the citizenship law. This Article employs a qualitative approach by analysing the judicial decisions, statutory provisions and comparative benchmarking with Singapore legal system..This article concludes that the Constitution should be amended to fully recognise the concept of gender equality and acknowledge the right of Malaysian mothers who gave birth overseas to confer citizenship by operation of law on their children. The failure to act fast would lead those children to become stateless. For future research, this study recommends a fieldwork study into the problems faced by children born overseas to Malaysian mothers be conducted to obtain primary data
Many developed countries recognise the importance of heritage conservation and the destruction of heritage sites as a human right infringement. Uncontrolled development has led to the demolition of heritage sites. This article explores the extent of the right to heritage through the spectrum of international instruments in identifying practical approaches in the designation and conservation process. This article is essential to highlight the best practice of heritage management in Malaysia. This study applied the qualitative method using librarybased doctrinal research. Reference to Malaysian legislation in relation to heritage conservation, such as the Federal Constitution, the National Heritage Act 2005, and the Town and Country Planning Act 1976 was made. Besides, international legal instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights were also analysed. For case reports, full courts' judgements were obtained from CLJ Law and Lexis Nexis. Secondary sources such as journal articles, conference papers, and websites were accessed online. This study found that while human rights features are present in the local legislation, their application is scarce and very limited. In the decisionmaking for the designation and management of heritage sites, there is a lack of recognition of human rights. The involvement of members of the public in the process is also limited. This article concludes that a human-rights-based approach should be emphasised to foster greater public participation in heritage designation and management. This article recommends that future research focus on reviewing the current legislation to embed human-right elements explicitly in their provisions.
In Malaysia, the increase in juvenile delinquency has always been a source of worry. The discussion around juvenile sentencing is always centred on the familial aspect of rehabilitating adolescents and the punitive role of criminal punishments. The proponents of restorative justice think that children in their vulnerable position should not be subjected to harsh sentences, whereas the proponents of punitive justice advocate for harsher, deterrent punishments. In light of this, this study aims to examine the practice of sentencing children in Malaysia. This essay examines the challenges judges encounter when selecting appropriate sentencing for juvenile criminals. This study applied a doctrinal methodology to discuss the legal provisions of the Child Act 2001, Criminal Procedure Code, Penal Code and reported cases. This study employed content analysis of the reported cases from online databases such as the LexisNexis and Current Law Journal. The data from primary sources of law such as legislation and reported cases were accompanied with secondary data obtained from journal articles, textbooks, conference papers, theses, published statistics, and webpages. This study found that the sentencing practice with regard to children in Malaysia differs from one case to another. Judicial discretion given to the judges are not accompanied by specific guidelines but rather general considerations such as the age of the offenders, the gravity of the offence, the probation report and previous conviction. This study concludes that juveniles' punishments must be proportional to the severity of their crimes. A sentencing guideline should be established to guarantee that sentencing practices are consistent. Besides, clear procedures in preparing a probation report must also be established. For future research, this study recommends a relook on the role of probation officers and the significance of probation report in assisting judges to impose appropriate punishment towards juvenile offenders.
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