Law & Behold #52: The Right to Representation & Legal Aid

Guest: Firdaus Husni, Chief Human Rights Strategist, Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights (MCCHR), Abdul Rashid Ismail, Lawyer & Former President, National Human Rights Society of Malaysia (HAKAM)

Earlier this week, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reforms) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, said that a comprehensive study is being done on the proposed Public Defender's Act, aimed at improving legal aid services for criminal cases in the country. Access to justice is - or should be - a fundamental right in a democratic society, but we know that in reality, there are problems of access to justice for many. On this episode of Law & Behold, we discuss the right to representation and whether it is mentioned anywhere in the Federal Constitution, while also relating this to recent developments in the country on the abolishment of the mandatory death penalty, and access to justice for those on death row. We tie all of this in with Article 5 of the Federal Constitution which states that "no person may be deprived of life or personal liberty except in accordance with law."

Helping us to unpack all of this are Firdaus Husni (Chief Human Rights Strategist, Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights (MCCHR), and Abdul Rashid Ismail (Lawyer, and Former President, National Human Rights Society of Malaysia (HAKAM).

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Presenter: Juliet Jacobs

Producer: Juliet Jacobs

right to representation

federal constitution of malaysia

death row

punitive justice