KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 10 — Alarmed by rising vulnerabilities among the nation’s youth, a coalition of health care professionals yesterday launched the “Kinabalu Declaration on Safeguarding Children Through Ethical and Inclusive Action”, a historic and unified pledge to safeguard every Malaysian child.
Formally presented to Nurul Izzah Anwar, patron of the Malaysian Paediatric Association (MPA), the Declaration was launched at the opening ceremony of the 10th Asian Vaccine Conference & 3rd Asian Paediatric Ethics Conference, held in conjunction with the 46th Annual Congress of the Malaysian Paediatric Association.
It represents a firm ethical commitment to dismantle barriers that prevent children from thriving, with a focus on critical issues such as statelessness, lack of health care access, and child marriage.
The Declaration, led by Dr Amar Singh HSS, Dr Soo Thian Lian, and Dr Erwin J Khoo, emerged from the national Child Advocacy Conference 2025, which convened over 170 child experts in Kota Kinabalu this June. Its core principle is that a child’s best interests must remain the paramount consideration in all decisions, policies, and laws that affect them.
“The data paints a worrying picture, but behind every statistic is a child whose future is at risk”, said MPA president Dr Mohamad Ikram Ilias.
“The Kinabalu Declaration is our collective promise to those children. It moves us from discussion to action, demanding ethical and inclusive solutions that leave no child behind. This is not just a paediatrician’s fight; it is Malaysia’s fight.”
The Declaration highlights the increasing need for stronger child protection measures in Malaysia, citing several critical issues. These include the over 300,000 children who were at risk of statelessness as of 2016 and the thousands of child marriages recorded in the past decade.
Furthermore, children in undocumented and hard-to-reach communities continue to face significant disparities, evidenced by their notably lower vaccination and school enrolment rates.
The Four Pillars of the Kinabalu Declaration:
- Collaborative, Community-Led Advocacy: Affirms that child protection is a shared responsibility across all sectors, empowering grassroots and marginalised communities to drive solutions.
- Empowering Children: Calls for the creation of safe platforms to integrate children’s voices and lived experiences into the policies that shape their lives.
- Universal Access to Essential Services: Declares that every child, regardless of legal status, documentation, or socioeconomic background, has an unconditional right to health care, inclusive education, and social support.
- Strengthening Governance and Policy: Demands the establishment of an independent Children’s Commission and the full harmonisation of Malaysian laws with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Kinabalu Declaration is a direct call to action for the government, private sector, civil society organisations, and community leaders to transform these commitments into sustained, tangible progress for Malaysia’s children.
This press release was issued by the Malaysian Paediatric Association.
