♻️Monitoring & Evaluation

All duty-bearers must engage in continuous monitoring, evaluation, and reflection to ensure the effectiveness of their services and accessibility to rights holders. Monitoring and evaluation help to assess the effectiveness of the mechanisms and remedies. It can also help your organisation adapt to changes in the societal and legal landscapes. Finally, it is an important step in building public trust in your organisation and the broader justice system.

• Gather feedback from people who have used the complaint mechanism to understand their experiences and areas for improvement.

• Conduct data analysis on the complaints received; this will help with identifying trends, bottlenecks, and success rates

• Engage in periodic consultations with LGBTQIA+ people, rights groups, advocacy groups, and legal experts for diverse perspectives on the efficacy of the mechanism and responses

• Regularly publish reports on the performance and outcomes of the complaint mechanisms to ensure transparency and accountability

Best Practices: SUHAKAM Sabah (Timely and Appropriate Response)

Case 1

In 2019, Jabatan Agama in Sabah acted on a complaint lodged by a religious-based organisation about a beauty pageant at a wedding ceremony. The organisation along with a few of its members visited the wedding ceremony to take photos and details of the trans people present, and uploaded them to facebook. The victims were doxxed.

The day after the incident, the religious department sent officers to visit their homes and workplaces, and some of them experienced harassment at their homes, on the streets, and at their workplaces. In one extreme incident, a religious officer cornered a trans woman at her workplace, asked her to strip and take off her bra in front of her clients, and proceeded to conduct an invasive body check. Some of the victims attempted to lodge a police report, but the police blamed them for their sexual behaviour, and their work, and did not permit them to lodge the report. The victims then contacted a local LGBTQIA+ organisation, who alerted SUHAKAM Sabah.

SUHAKAM Sabah acted swiftly. After meeting with the survivors and interviewing them, they wrote several letters of escalation to the Sabah religious authorities and police officers involved. They also kept the LGBTQIA+ organisation and staff updated about the progress of the investigation, and checked in to ask if any further raids had happened.

Case 2

A similar incident happened in 2022, where 2 trans women were detained during a raid on a wedding. They were kept waiting for 2-3 hours, and sexually harassed by the male officer.

The SUHAKAM officers flew out to Semporna to meet with the survivors. The officers had received prior training on SOGIESC sensitivity and demonstrated these skills while interviewing the survivors, including respecting their gender expression and pronouns. They also checked with LGBTQIA+ organisation staff that they were using the right terminology.

Best Practices

The SUHAKAM Sabah officers demonstrated the following best practices:

• Took a human rights approach to complaints

• Reacted to the complaint in a timely manner

• Practiced survivor-centric principles by travelling to meet the survivors, rather than having the survivors travel to meet them

• Practised SOGIESC sensitivity while interviewing survivors about their experiences to avoid retraumatisation

• Consulted and worked with LGBTQIA+ organisations where necessary

• Practised transparency by informing the survivors about the next steps of the investigation

• Followed up with survivors to check if further harm had occurred

Even though both cases are considered unresolved, the professionalism demonstrated by the SUHAKAM Sabah officers repaired some of the trust deficit between LGBTQIA+ people and the oversight body. LGBTQIA+ organisations reported a high level of faith in SUHAKAM Sabah, and actively encouraged community members to engage them directly.

Sources: KASIH, BENTARAKATA