Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] criticized [press release] the Malaysia Federal Court [official website] on Thursday for overturning a prior ruling that declared a discriminatory transgender law unconstitutional. The November 2014 ruling by the Putrajaya Court of Appeal reviewed Section 66 of the Sharia, or Islamic law, that prohibited men from “posing” as women and found [JURIST report] that the law violated the Malaysia Federal Constitution [text, PDF]. The Federal Court overturned the decision and denied review [University of Malaya report] of Section 66 on procedural grounds. Following this decision Section 66 of the enactment is considered constitutional and legal. HRW views the decision as a “set back” in the effort to end discrimination against transgender individuals in Malaysia including arbitrary arrests of transgender women.

Each of Malaysia’s 13 states and three federal territories have laws prohibiting a man from “posing” as a woman [Human Rights Watch report], and three states prohibit a woman from posing as a man. Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) [JURIST archive] continue to struggle against discriminatory laws [JURIST forum] throughout the world. In September, 12 United Nations agencies published a joint statement [JURIST report] urging states to end violence and discrimination toward LGBT individuals. Abuses toward the LGBT population are human rights abuses impacting society as a whole, the UN agencies said.The UN has increasingly paid attention to this issue, and held the first ministerial meeting on LGBT rights [JURIST report] in September 2013.