The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (the Commission) started to formally look into the area
of business and human rights in 2010. Prior to that, the Commission’s involvement in the issue of
business of human rights was rather incidental through, among others, addressing complaints involving
allegation of infringements of a wide range of human rights related to business operations, including
on gender discrimination in employment, exploitation of migrant workers, forced labour, employment,
indigenous peoples’ rights and environmental rights.

Since 2010, the Commission has given greater attention and priority to the area of business and human
rights and has carried out a number of activities which focussed specifically on this issue including a
series of forum and roundtable discussions with stakeholders on Business and Human Rights; research;
the National Inquiry on the Land Rights of Indigenous People in Malaysia and investigating allegations
of infringements of rights impacted by business activities.