Today, FIDH and the Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN) submitted a report for the third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Maldives, which will be held in May 2020 in Geneva, Switzerland. The report assesses the extent to which the government of the Maldives has addressed key human rights issues since the second UPR cycle, which began in May 2015, and offers recommendations for the third UPR cycle.
The report specifically looks at the following key human rights areas: the National Human Rights Institution; human rights defenders; freedom of expression; discrimination against women; violence against women; migrant workers; administration of justice; law enforcement; accountability for past crimes; detention conditions; torture and ill-treatment; enforced disappearances; the death penalty; and freedom of religion or belief.
The report finds that in most of the above-mentioned areas the government has failed to satisfactorily implement the recommendations the Maldives received during the second UPR cycle, including those that had been accepted.
NOTE: The contributions to the UPR submission by the Maldivian NGO Uthema were limited to concerns relating to issues impacting the rights of Maldivian women and families. Uthema withdrew from the joint submission due to fundamental differences in opinion on some of the recommendations.