KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 8 — Female participation in leadership roles both in local public and private sectors were low, a forum on human rights revealed today.
Zainah Anwar, director of the Musawah global movement for equality and justice in the Muslim family, said a study conducted this year placed Malaysia 106 out of 144 countries, behind many Asean countries.
“A study in 2011 meanwhile showed that of the 57 per cent of women graduated that year, only 11 per cent made it to the mid to senior management position while five and seven per cent made it to the CEO and members of board levels respectively.
“This is a serious loss in talent,” she said.
Other panellists at the forum entitled “Human Rights in Malaysia: Towards a Developed Nation Status” included representative of United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Richard Towle and Prof Dr Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Tun Hussein Onn chair at Institute of Strategic and international studies (ISIS) Malaysia.
The forum was held in conjunction with Human Rights Day 2016.
The Human Rights Day is observed by the international community every year on December 10 and it commemorates the day in 1948 when the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
