CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation issued an open letter on Oct. 14 demanding that Malaysian authorities immediately drop all charges against Rohingya human rights defender Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani.
Detained on Sept. 29 and charged the following day under Sections 42 and 48 of Malaysia’s Societies Act 1966 for managing and representing an unregistered association, Zafar serves as president of the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation Malaysia (MERHROM) and has been a U.N.-registered refugee since 2004.
Currently released on bail, his court hearings are set to commence at the end of October 2026.
In the letter signed by Advocacy & Campaigns Lead Reylynne Dela Paz, CIVICUS highlighted that Zafar’s prosecution contradicts international human rights frameworks, including the 1998 U.N. Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which safeguards the right to perform human rights advocacy individually or in association with others.
The global alliance further criticized the Societies Act 1966 for criminalizing unregistered groups, citing U.N. Special Rapporteur standards that protect the right to freedom of association equally for both registered and unregistered bodies.
Despite leading human rights advocacy and anti-trafficking initiatives since 1998, Zafar has faced sustained vilification and death threats following false online accusations in April 2020, prompting CIVICUS to urge Malaysian authorities to dismiss the charges, reform the Societies Act, and protect human rights defenders from reprisals.
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