Kuala Lumpur, 28 January 2026 – The INITIATE.MY team attended the Convention on Criminal Justice and Legal Reforms: Justice in a New Age, organised by the National Unity and Integration Department (Jabatan Perpaduan dan Integrasi Nasional, BHEUU) and held at Dewan Auditorium, Pusat Timbang Tara Antarabangsa Asia (AIAC), Kuala Lumpur.
The convention brought together legal practitioners, policymakers, and civil society representatives to discuss what meaningful reform of Malaysia’s criminal justice system should look like in today’s world.
The convention addressed a wide range of issues that sit at the core of a fair justice system. Discussions touched on wrongful convictions and the inequality between prosecution and defence, particularly around access to evidence and legal representation for the marginalised.
Participants also examined the state of pre-trial detention and bail in Malaysia, where overcrowding in prisons and an over-reliance on cash bail continue to disproportionately affect those who cannot afford legal support. The consensus was clear: the system as it stands places too heavy a burden on the accused, and reform is long overdue.
Conversations also turned to how Malaysia’s legal framework is keeping up, or failing to keep up, with the realities of modern crime. From cybercrime and online harm to forced criminality and cross-border organised crime, participants acknowledged that existing legislation has significant gaps.
The Computer Crimes Act 1997, for instance, has never been amended despite the emergence of offences like phishing, ransomware, and deepfakes that were not conceivable when the law was drafted. A new cybercrime bill and stronger frameworks around online child sexual exploitation were among the reforms discussed.
These discussions were particularly relevant to INITIATE.MY’s work at the intersection of technology, law, and human rights. The convention offered a valuable opportunity to understand the direction of policy reform in Malaysia and to situate our work within the broader push for a justice system that is rights-based, transparent, and responsive to those it is meant to protect, especially in the digital world.
As Malaysia navigates these reforms, civil society engagement and collaboration remains essential to ensure that the voices of the most vulnerable are not left out of the conversation.
