UN Adopts Maldives Human Rights Report

United Nations Human Rights Council yesterday adopted the Maldives' Universal Periodic Review (UPR) outcome report containing a summary of the human rights situation in the country and a series of recommendations by the Maldives' international partners as to how the situation could be improved. Under the UPR process, each Member State of the UN must undergo a review of its human rights situation every four years. Speaking at the adoption, the Maldives Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Iruthisham Adam, welcomed the UPR process as “a unique and useful exercise” which has “encouraged us to think and act in different ways in the sphere of human rights”. “The Maldives' approach to the UPR process” she noted, “has been premised on the same principles with which we approach all our interactions with the Human Rights Council. In particular, we have tried to be honest, transparent, self-critical, and willing to listen”.

The first part of the Maldives' outcome report contains the views of States on the Maldives' human rights record. In it the Maldives' international partners warmly welcome the significant human rights achievements of recent years and encourage the country to continue its efforts to consolidate democracy and strengthen fundamental freedoms. States then made recommendations for improvement.

In the Maldives' case, 126 recommendations were tabled, the vast majority of which the Maldives has accepted to implement before its next review in four years time. According to Ambassador Adam, “these accepted recommendations cover a wide-range of important issues and, when implemented, will make a significant positive contribution to human rights in the Maldives”. Steps that the Maldives has agreed to take include:

• Ratify the two remaining conventions to which the Maldives is not yet party – namely the Convention on Enforced Disappearances, and the Convention on the Human Rights of Migrant Workers.

• Strengthen the Maldives compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

• Work with the judiciary to strengthen independence, professionalism and capacity.

• Draft, table and adopt legislation designed to improve human rights protection in the country, such as the new Penal Code and specific laws dealing with equality and non-discrimination.

• Strengthen the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights in the Maldives, including in the areas of health, education, employment, trafficking, drug-rehabilitation, and juvenile delinquency.

After responding to the 100 or so recommendations that the Maldives was able to accept, Ambassador Adam gave the Government's position on those that could not be implemented in the short-term. These recommendations covered issues such a: abolition of the death penalty and corporal punishment, freedom of religion and conscience; and gay rights. On corporal punishment, Ambassador Adam stated that “while the Government sympathizes with the recommendations made on this point, it is not possible at the present time to consider prohibition. Instead, we accept to consult with relevant national and international authorities to assess whether the application of corporal punishment, as currently practiced in the Maldives, is compatible with the our international obligations under the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (CAT), and also whether the newly-independent judiciary in the country has the capacity, at present, to pass down such punishments in a manner fully consistent with the Maldives Constitution and international human rights law, in particular those provisions dealing with non-discrimination on the basis of gender”.

On freedom of religion, Ambassador Adam explained that the Maldives is a 100% Muslim country, and that in the Maldives national consciousness, being a Maldivian and being a Muslim cannot be separated - the are rather two sides of the same coin... “It extremely difficult to introduce principles of freedom of conscience into the country”, explained the Ambassador. “Notwithstanding this, the Maldives fully understands to importance of tolerance and understanding across all walks of life – including religion. We have therefore decided, as a first step, to accept recommendation 100.91 and to begin domestic awareness-raising and open public debate on religious issues. Moreover, bearing in mind that perceptions of human rights and religion in the Maldives are heavily influenced by relevant international debates and norms, the Maldives has decided to host, in 2012, a major international conference on modern Sharia jurisprudence and human rights”.