The OKU Rights Matter Project

The OKU Rights Matter Project seeks to help strengthen conditions for advancing disability rights, to achieve acceptance and inclusion of persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others in society.

Our aim

What we do

We share resources that could be useful towards progress in upholding and protecting the rights of persons with diverse disabilities – women and girls, men and boys, young women and young men, older women and older men in urban, rural and remote settings.

Our invitation to you

We welcome engagement by all persons — with and without visible disabilities — in exploring ways of removing barriers that are faced by persons with diverse disabilities in Malaysia, whether emotional, psychological, conceptual, attitudinal, behavioural, systemic, institutional, legal, physical or digital.

Meet the team

San Yuenwah

Yuenwah’s involvement in the Asian and Pacific disability movement is rooted in the genesis of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002, the world’s first such regional initiative and in substantive work for the third and fourth regional Decade (2023-2032). She was an active member of the ESCAP team that supported the intergovernmental process in the drafting and adoption of the Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific, with the world’s first set of regionally-agreed disability-inclusive development goals. Yuenwah’s recent contribution to ESCAP knowledge products include those pertaining to publications on a regional overview, as well as case studies regarding the harmonization of national legislation with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, an ESCAP guide to legal recognition of sign languages, and the Operational Guide on the Implementation of the Jakarta Declaration on the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities, 2023-2032. Yuenwah is a recipient of the 2023 Rehabilitation International Centennial Award for Significant Contributions.

Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS

Amar is a Consultant Paediatrician who served the Malaysian health service for 35 years, including in heading a regional Paediatric and Research Department. He helped strengthen child health services and introduce national programmes for children. Amar has established civil society organizations and family support groups. Amar’s work involves the provision of health care to disadvantaged and marginalized children, indigenous communities, support for family self-help groups, with a focus on education and other disability-related issues. A highly experienced researcher, counsellor, trainer and active child rights advocate, Amar is recipient of the Outstanding Asian Paediatrician Award 2012, SENIA Advocacy Award 2016 and the 2023 Rehabilitation International Centennial Award for Significant Contributions. Amar is also the advisor to the National Early Childhood Intervention Council (NECIC) and National Family Support Group for Children and People with Special Needs.

Ng Lai-Thin

Lai-Thin is an inclusive education specialist and disability-inclusion advocate. She is the author of Small Steps, Big Changes for Preschool Inclusion, Malaysia’s first resource of its kind to centre presuming competence (emphasising a strength-based approach that assumes the learner has the capability to think, learn and communicate) and access in supporting children with disabilities.
She currently serves as Project Lead for the National Early Childhood Intervention Council (NECIC), where she coordinates initiatives that strengthen early childhood intervention practices and promote inclusive practices in Malaysia. She has written most of the resource briefs featured on this website.
Growing up with a neurodivergent sibling and being a dementia care partner, she learned that true support means centering the autonomy and lived experiences of people with disabilities. Blending personal insights and professional expertise, she works to challenge ableism and build systems that uphold the dignity, rights, and full participation of persons with disabilities.

Datin Anit Kaur Randhawa

Anit is a legal practitioner, litigator and mediator. She graduated from the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Her career path was enriched when researching the law on disability while advocating for her own child with a learning disability. Anit is passionate about law reform. She is the Co-Chairperson, Malaysian Bar Council Committee on Persons with Disabilities (2024/2025; 2025/2026); Co-Chair of the Harapan OKU Law Reform Group; Vice President (Legal), Medico Legal Society of Malaysia (MLSM); and Member, Association of Women Lawyers (AWL). Anit is also in a discussion group of five mothers of neurodivergent children; the group launched on 4 February the Kita Family Podcast series at the KLPodFest 2024 and the series is growing from strength to strength.