(KUALA LUMPUR, March 2023)—On March 20, 2023, Teresa Kok—a member of the Malaysian parliament representing the Democratic Action Party—raised in a parliamentary session the universal jurisdiction criminal complaint lodged in Germany by Fortify Rights and 16 Myanmar complainants against Myanmar officials involved in atrocity crimes. Teresa Kok also called on Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to attend the upcoming Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) Treaty conference in Slovenia in May 2023. This conference is part of an initiative by several countries to develop a multi-lateral treaty to establish cooperative mechanisms to investigate and prosecute atrocity crimes.
On March 17, 2023, Fortify Rights briefed Teresa Kok and a group of Malaysian parliamentarians on the content and purpose of the universal jurisdiction complaint as well as the upcoming MLA Treaty conference, recommending Malaysia support these efforts.