Male’, Maldives – The government of Maldives has announced that four Ministers will be representing the Maldives in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) session scheduled to be held on Wednesday.
The UPR sessions, which is a process that involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States, began on the 2nd of November, and will go on until the 13th of this month, reviewing a total of 14 countries. The review of Maldives, which is scheduled for 18:30 local time to be held virtually, will be participated by the head of delegation, Attorney General Ibrahim Riffath, Minister of Gender, Family and Social Services Aishath Mohamed Didi, Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail and the Minister of Home Affairs Imran Abdullah.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, the Permanent Representative to the UN offices in Geneva, Dr. Asim Ahmed and the officials of the permanent mission to the UN from the Maldives based in Geneva will be attending the UN office in Geneva and attending the sessions as well.
During this session, which will be conducted in Geneva, Switzerland, the efforts of Maldives in protecting and promoting human rights during the past four and half years will be reviewed.
The government of Maldives plans to submit interventions in four key areas, which will highlight the work of Maldives towards protecting and promoting human rights, as well as the government policies to address any such rights. These include interventions regarding ensuring justice, provision of assistance to those who require special assistance, work done in making law enforcement authorities more responsible, and the freedom in formation of organizations and other non government bodies, as well as that of foreign workers.
The Attorney General’s Office also revealed that Maldives will be receiving recommendations from other member countries during these sessions, based on the national report submitted on 3rd February 2020, stakeholder reports by independent organizations and the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives, and information submitted by other UN sources regarding the Maldives.
As such, Maldives is set to receive 97 recommendations, of which, Maldives will not be accepting any recommendations which is against the country’s constitution and Islamic belief, read a statement by the Foreign Ministry.
Maldives will have until the 14th of December, 2020 to decide whether the country will be accepting the recommendations.
Following today’s session, the report prepared by the UPR working group will be adopted, during the working group session scheduled to be held on the 6th of November, 2020.
The UPR was established when the Human Rights Council was created on 15 March 2006 by the UN General Assembly in resolution 60/25. This mandated the Council to undertake a universal periodic review, based on objective and reliable information, of the fulfilment by each State of its human rights obligations and commitments in a manner which ensures universality of coverage and equal treatment with respect to all States
