Parliamentary symposium to spotlight Sabah's stateless children

 By Olivia Miwil

June 6, 2026 @ 9:24am

Advocates for Non Discrimination and Access to Knowledge (ANAK) co-founder Anne Baltazar said the two-day event is organised under the theme ‘The Child Act 2001 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Good Practices’. — SCREENGRAB FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

KOTA KINABALU: A parliamentary symposium on children's rights legislative reform will serve as an avenue to highlight the realities of Sabah's long-standing issues involving undocumented and stateless children.

Advocates for Non Discrimination and Access to Knowledge (ANAK) co-founder Anne Baltazar said the two-day event is organised under the theme 'The Child Act 2001 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Good Practices'.

The symposium will convene members of parliament, senators, international experts, government officials, and civil society organisations to examine how Malaysia's laws can better protect every child, including those most often left behind.

"With sessions dedicated to children without having issues with documentation, stateless and children of migrants, this symposium gives us a seat at the table where national laws that directly impact our communities are being scrutinised and reshaped.

"We are determined to ensure that the children of Sabah are not left out of this conversation," she said.

Anne, who will speak on Tuesday at 2.30pm on the "Right to Identity: Children without Documentation, Migrants and Statelessness", said the event is a vital opportunity for ANAK to join a national conversation on how existing laws must evolve to protect every child regardless of documentation status.

She is also a Sabah Child Safeguarding Initiative committee member.

The symposium will also cover themes including the CRC framework, comprehensive legislative reform, children's access to justice, and alternatives to detention for child refugees.

ANAK is a civil society organisation based in Sabah, dedicated to upholding the rights of migrant children and stateless communities.

As Sabah is home to one of the largest populations of stateless and undocumented children in Malaysia, the activist said many of these children live without birth certificates, access to education, or legal recognition.

She said the children were "caught in a cycle of invisibility" that denied them their most fundamental rights.

"The inclusion of a dedicated session on children without documentation and migrant statelessness in a parliamentary forum signals a growing recognition of these concerns at the national level, and ANAK is committed to ensuring that the voices from the ground in Sabah shape the outcome," Anne said.