Presidential Council for Minority Rights
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The Presidential Council for Minority Rights is a government body in Singapore.
Established in 1970 as the Presidential Council and later renamed in 1973, one of the council's function is to scrutinise most of the Bills passed by the Parliament of Singapore, to ensure that the proposed law does not discriminate against any race, religion or community. If the Council feels any provision in the law is biased, it will report its findings to Parliament and the Bill will be referred back to Parliament for reconsideration. The council also reports to the Government on matters affecting any racial or religious community and investigates complaints.
The Council is currently headed by the Chief Justice of Singapore.
Members of the council are: (as of October 2006)
- Chan Sek Keong (Chairman), Chief Justice of Singapore
- Lee Kuan Yew, Minister Mentor
- Othman Bin Wok, former Member of Parliament and founding Cabinet Minister
- Goh Chok Tong, Senior Minister
- S Jayakumar, Deputy Prime Minister, Coordinating Minister for National Security and former Minister for Law
- S Dhanabalan, former Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister
- Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister
- Chao Hick Tin, Judge of Appeal, former Attorney-General
- H R Hochstadt
- Sat Pal Khattar
- Lim Chong Yah
- Oscar Joseph Oliveiro
- Andrew Chew Guan Khuan, Chairman of Public Service Commission
- Haji Shafawi Bin Ahmad
- J Y Pillay, Chairman of the Council of Presidential Advisers
- Nicholas Chia, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore
- Othman Haron bin Eusofe, former Member of Parliament
