Sisters In Islam executive director Rozana Isa said NGOs must educate the public on human rights, including on topics such as discrimination and equality.

They also need to make it “meaningful and understandable”.

“Aside from that, our understanding of human rights also needs to be demystified and un-demonised as something which is coming from the West and be seen as a framework to help us see past our biases and prejudices.

“It has been 20 years since Durban,” she said at a webinar, referring to the World Conference against Racism (WCAR) which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

“But we still have a long way to go with all sorts of racism and discrimination in Malaysia.”

Rozana also spoke about the need for the youths to play a bigger role in leading the conversations on anti-racism.

“Young people are our hope.”

She stressed the need to learn from youth-led movements such as Undi18 and Lawan on the ways they address issues related to civil and political rights, as well as race and religious issues on social media platforms.

Rozana called on the government to put greater effort into spreading messages on racial equality and anti-discrimination via the media.

”They can give very positive messages about equality and non-discrimination. We can see the messaging campaign in the media that the government has been rolling out with regards to Covid-19, the pandemic and the vaccines.

“That is the type of commitment needed to push messages that no Malaysian should be discriminated against … all Malaysians are equal.”