Suhakam moves Human Rights Day celebration to Sunday (Dec 9)

KUALA LUMPUR: The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) will postpone its Human Rights Day celebration to Sunday (Dec 9).

It tweeted on Friday: "Suhakam's #HumanRightsDay celebration will now be held on 9 December 2018. Join us in #StandingUpForHumanRights".

Its chief commissioner Tan Sri Razali Ismail said that the decision to postpone the celebrations was made after they were advised to do so by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Razali said that police had also informed Dr Mahathir of the risk to national security.

"The Prime Minister said that he would not be attending the celebration and advised Suhakam to postpone it.

"We have taken his advice into consideration and will postpone our celebrations to the same time and venue the following day on Sunday (Dec 9)," he told reporters at a press conference on Friday (Dec 7).

The Suhakam human rights celebration will now be held at Padang Timur, Petaling Jaya from 9am to 3pm on Sunday (Dec 9).

In an earlier press release, Suhakam said it would be postponing its Human Rights Day celebration, which was supposed to take place on Saturday (Dec 8) with Dr Mahathir as the chief guest.

He said that the police had informed them and the Prime Minister's Office, without divulging further details, about "serious security risks" that bordered on national security.

The Human Rights Day celebration was originally scheduled to take place on the same day as the anti-Icerd rally being held in Kuala Lumpur, which is supposed to be attended by up to 500,000 Umno and PAS members.

The anti-Icerd rally will begin at 2pm and end at 6pm that day.

Suhakam’s #HumanRightsDay celebration will now be held on 9 December 2018. Join us in #StandingUpForHumanRights — SUHAKAM (@SUHAKAM) December 7, 2018