Speaking to FMT, AWL president Goh Siu Lin said these laws implied that a child should be treated as an individual with rights and not as the property of his parents or the state.

Upholding the child’s rights, she said, would be prior to considering the wishes of the parents or the state.

She also quoted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, noting that it promotes the best interests of the child as “a main consideration in all actions concerning children”.

For example, she said, the parents’ wishes must be ignored if they won’t let their child give testimony in a case to determine whether the child has been abused when the testimony is crucial to the achievement of justice for the child.

She said such parental objection might arise in a case where the perpetrator was a family breadwinner or a relative.

Referring to the handling of child sexual abuse cases, she said there was a need for inter-agency standard operating procedures so that all who are involved – from policemen to doctors to prosecutors to judges – would know their respective roles and maintain the highest standards in handling a child victim.

This was crucial to ensuring that the child was not re-traumatised, she added.

She said such procedural measures would include ensuring that a child victim was accompanied by a trusted person for court attendances, and that identities were protected from the media. The victims should also be protected from being approached by the perpetrators and their families, she added.

A Reuters report last year said there were 12,987 reported cases of child sexual abuse between January 2012 and July 2016 in Malaysia. Charges were filed in 2,189 cases, resulting in 140 convictions.

Last year, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said said the government would table the Child Sexual Crime Bill for the first and second readings in the Dewan Rakyat next month.

She said the Cabinet had agreed to set up a special court to deal with offences under the proposed law to solve sexual crime cases involving children within a short period.

Goh also spoke on the need to abolish child marriages, saying they were often used as a solution to teen pregnancy and an “escape route” for child rapists.

“The reality is that children do get pregnant,” she said. “However, they should be supported by the state and community to complete their education to become economically independent individuals rather than be married off by their parents and relegated to a life of dependency and vulnerability.”