The United Nations Human Rights Office of South-East Asia has urged the Malaysian government to respect internationally recognised right to freedom of assembly that it has ratified.
“We urge the government to abide by its international human rights obligations to protect the rights of all Malaysians to gather peacefully and to express their opinion,” said its acting regional representative Laurent Meillan in a statement.
This comes after media reports of organisers of the Bersih 5 rally having been subjected to threats and harassment, which the UN human rights office hope would not go unpunished.