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The Committee on the Rights of the Child today concluded its consideration of the combined second to fourth periodic report of Malaysia under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, with Committee Experts commending the State party on progress achieved in maternal and infant health care, while raising questions on penalties for children who had committed serious crimes and alternatives to institutionalisation for children.
Rinchen Chophel, Committee Expert and Country Taskforce Coordinator, commended Malaysia on significant progress achieved in the field of health care, including efforts to improve maternal health care and reduce infant mortality rates.
Mary Beloff, Committee Vice-Chair and Country Taskforce Member, asked about measures adopted to deal with children who would have been given the death penalty if they were adults? Had there been any children given the death penalty for terrorism or crimes against the State? Could they be resentenced retroactively? Did the same legal protections apply to children for any crimes? The Committee had read about children who had stayed detained for an indetermined period of time. Could the State elaborate on diversion programmes and rehabilitation efforts?
Thuwayba Al Barwani, Committee Vice Chair and Country Taskforce Member, said the 2024 exposure of the widespread abuse of children in institutions underscored a serious systemic failure of Malaysia's alternative care system, highlighting the urgent need for structural reform of these facilities. What reforms had been introduced as a result? How many children had been placed in kinship care, foster care and guardianship since regulations came into force? What training was provided to foster carers? What concrete measures had the State taken to ensure affordable, quality care for children in vulnerable situations?
The delegation said under Malaysian law, children could not be sentenced to death. If a child had committed a serious offence which would carry the death penalty for an adult, the court must order imprisonment as a penalty. This detention was not automatic and indefinite; the child's case was reviewed once per year by an independent body which considered various factors and could recommend early release when appropriate, ensuring rehabilitation remained possible. Children in prison received education and structured support with the aim of ensuring their reintegration into society when it was safe to do so. This provision was only enacted in exceptional circumstances.
The delegation said since the adoption of regulations, concrete steps had been taken to implement a family-first approach for State care, with institutionalisation used only as a last resort. Alternative care pathways were provided, prioritising kinship care, foster care and guardianship. Care givers needed to be assessed as adequate to meet the child's needs. A screening process had been set up to assess care givers prior to their appointment. All children placed in family care were supported by structured case management, including regular visits and reviews to assess the child's wellbeing and the suitability of the environment. As of 2025, a total of 5,445 children had been placed under family-based care arrangements.
Introducing the report, Dato' Sri Hajah Nancy Shukri, Minister of Women, Family and Community Development of Malaysia and head of the delegation, said this year marked 31 years since Malaysia had acceded to the Convention. Since 2022, the Government had allocated significant funds to key children-related initiatives to scale up school-based nutrition and education support, support preventive child health measures, and continue assistance for vulnerable children and families. Since the last report, 21 laws had been repealed, amended or introduced to improve the protection and rights of children. In 2025, the Federal Constitution was amended to grant citizenship to children born abroad to Malaysian mothers.
In closing remarks, Mr. Chophel commended Malaysia for its commitment to protect every child, which demonstrated a country stepping into a new chapter of high-income status. Areas which required urgent attention included the withdrawal of reservations to the Convention; legislative alignment with the Convention; strengthening child protection and child justice systems; including refugee, migrant, asylum seeking and stateless children in national systems; fiscal investment in children; and reports pending under the Optional Protocols.
In her concluding remarks, Ms. Shukri thanked the Committee for its careful review and thoughtful questions over the past two days. The protection, development and participation of children remained key priorities, and commitment to the Convention formed part of Malaysia's development agenda.
The delegation of Malaysia consisted of representatives from the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Ministry of Home Affairs; the Ministry of Education; the Ministry of Health; the Ministry of Human Resources; the Attorney General's Chamber; the National Security Council; the Department of Islamic Development; and the Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the United Nations Office at Geneva.
The Committee will issue concluding observations on the report of Malaysia at the end of its one hundredth session on 30 January. Those, and other documents relating to the Committee's work, including reports submitted by States parties, will be available on the session's webpage. Summaries of the public meetings of the Committee can be found here, while webcasts of the public meetings can be found here.
The Committee will next meet in public on Monday, 26 January at 10 a.m. to consider the combined sixth and seventh periodic report of Ethiopia (CRC/C/ETH/6-7).
Report
The Committee has before it the combined second to fourth periodic report of Malaysia (CRC/C/MYS/2-4).
Presentation of Report
DATO' SRI HAJAH NANCY SHUKRI, Minister of Women, Family and Community Development of Malaysia and head of the delegation, said this year marked 31 years since Malaysia had acceded to the Convention. Since 2022, the Government had allocated significant funds to key children-related initiatives to scale up school-based nutrition and education support, support preventive child health measures, and continue assistance for vulnerable children and families. In 2022, the Child Development Agency was established, resulting in the reduction of the social worker to children's cases ratio to one to 20, ensuring better case management to enable the well-being of children who had fallen through the cracks.
Since the last report, 21 laws had been repealed, amended or introduced to improve the protection and rights of children, including amendments to the sexual offences against children act 2017 to address grooming and online exploitation; updates to the evidence of child witness act 2007 to enhance procedural safeguards for child victims and witnesses; and the enactment of the online safety act 2025, which imposed clear obligations on digital service providers to protect children from online harm.
In 2025, the Federal Constitution was amended to grant citizenship to children born abroad to Malaysian mothers. Birth registration remained available to all children born in Malaysia, irrespective of parental documentation status under civil registration laws. This was complimented by mobile registration units deployed to remote and underserved communities to improve access to legal identity. From November 2024 to June 2025, more than 12,000 students with identification and document issues had had these successfully resolved.
Malaysia had strengthened its response to violence against children through expanded awareness campaigns, increased use of the 24-hour national care helpline, and improved detection and psychosocial support. Children's awareness of their rights had risen significantly, with self-reported cases from children increasing since 2022. The Government had also updated its framework for handling child sexual abuse, expanded integrated support services, and enacted the legal aid and public defence bill 2025 to ensure equal access to legal assistance for all children, including non-citizens.
Malaysia had launched the national policy on children and its action plan 2025-2030 to strengthen child protection, development, participation and well-being, supported by an integrated multi-agency data dashboard to improve responses to child sexual exploitation and abuse. The Government had also introduced the national action plan on business and human rights 2025-2030 to ensure private-sector accountability in preventing child exploitation and labour. Efforts to address child marriage were being reviewed, following the conclusion of the previous strategy, with data showing a decline in cases between 2019 and 2023, while safeguarding children's rights amid legal and cultural considerations. Malaysia also continued to prioritise family-based care, placing over 4,000 children in family environments between 2019 and 2024.
Malaysia promoted child and youth participation through formal platforms such as the National Council for Children and the Malaysian Children's Consultative Council, alongside youth assemblies that contributed to national policy development. Parliamentary mechanisms, including special select committees and cross-party groups, strengthened oversight on children's issues, further supported by a 2025 parliamentary briefing with the United Nations Children's Fund to reinforce lawmakers' awareness of children's rights and their role in shaping child-focused legislation and policies.
As of October 2025, Malaysia had made secondary education compulsory and launched the national education plan 2026-2035 to ensure inclusive, future-ready education. The country maintained strong child health and mental health support, and applied a rehabilitative approach in juvenile justice, strengthening legal safeguards, and advancing child-sensitive immigration measures while limiting detention. Malaysia acknowledged that legal harmonisation remained a challenge and would continue dialogue with stakeholders. The country recognised that realising children's rights required more than laws; effective implementation, coordinated institutions, sufficient resources, and societal commitments were essential.
Questions by Committee Experts
RINCHEN CHOPHEL, Committee Expert and Country Taskforce Coordinator, said the presence of a Minister leading the delegation of Malaysia emphasised the State's commitment to building a better life for children. It had been 19 years since Malaysia's last dialogue with the Committee, and they looked forward to a free and frank discourse.
JULIANA SCERRI FERRANTE, Committee Expert and Country Taskforce Member, said Malaysia had maintained reservations to several articles of the Convention. The Committee understood the cultural and religious implications for this but considered their removal important. How did the State ensure children were provided with equal rights given these reservations? Was the State prepared to conduct a full assessment of the legal changes required for Malaysia to fully meet Convention obligations? What was the plan for multisectoral coordination between departments to fully support children's rights? What were the outcomes of the two annual meetings held by the National Council of Children? How did the child protection framework teams collaborate with other entities? How was the funding of the Commission of Children, established in 2024, secured?
