Rights group asks Malaysia to protect Indigenous rights in timber trade

Rights group asks Malaysia to protect Indigenous rights in timber trade

Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report on Sunday urging Malaysia’s Sarawak state to protect Indigenous rights after a company logged timber without the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of an Indigenous Iban community. HRW asked Sarawak to “enforce their laws that regulate the trade of wood products” and for “international buyers of Malaysian wood products – including the European Union, the United States, and Japan – to enforce sustain…

Malaysia’s Sarawak government under scrutiny for failure to protect Iban Indigenous land rights

Malaysia’s Sarawak state has come under international criticism following the release of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report detailing failures to protect an Indigenous Iban community from unauthorised logging and land encroachment. The 60-page report, released on 5 May 2025, outlines how the company Zedtee, part of the Shin Yang Group, logged ancestral lands belonging to the Iban community of Rumah Jeffery without their consent. The report unders…