Malé, Maldives – The ruling party Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) at Thursday’s parliamentary sitting, decided to sent back the bill on amendments to criminalize hate crimes back to the committee stage, while it was in the last phase of approval.
MP of Dhaandhoo Constituency Yaugoob Abdullah who proposed an amendment to the bill said giving information to local media Mihaaru, that he withdrew his proposal following the PG group’s decision to send back the bill to the Committee stage.
The bill was sent back for further discussions with political parties and other relevant authorities to further amend the bill. MP Yaugoob said if the bill has not been properly amended when it is sent to the floor, he would propose the amendments again.
The Parliament members who previously spoke against the bill further said that bills relating to religious origins and essential human rights must be passed after thorough discussions with the relevant authorities. The Judiciary Committee investigating the bill has not done so in passing the bill, noted the members.
Members also raised their concerns over the committee not taking into account the amendments proposed by the Islamic Ministry and Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) when passing the bill.
The proposed amendments in the bill which received criticism by the public and several Islamic scholars are amendments to criminalize pointing out that a person is living against the rules of Islamic religion or the religion in a public place and creating hatred towards a person in the society by relating it to the Islamic faith
The bill is an amendment to the Maldives Penal Code proposed by the government to stop hatred by making hate speech and hate crimes an offence. The amendment was supported by all MDP parliament members except MP for Thinadhoo Constituency, Abdullah Sinaf while all the opposition parties spoke against the bill.
