Malé, Maldives – The Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM) has stated that the Asseyri Prison is unfit to detain juvenile offenders and ordered the Maldives Correctional Service (MCS) to remove all juvenile detainees from the prison.
In their statement, HRCM said that the juvenile detention facility that was to be established within the Asseyri Prison in K. Himmafushi was incomplete, resulting in juvenile offenders not receiving the rights and protections guaranteed under the Maldivian legislature and international treaties.
HRCM has since ordered the removal of all juveniles from the Asseyri Prison to a safer location 30 days effective 14 October 2021 and cease the detention of juveniles in the Asseyri prison completely under the authority provided to the commission by Article 26(a) of the Human Rights Commission Act (Act No. 6/2006).
Maldives Correctional Service is also ordered to create a plan outlining the transfer of juvenile detainees from the Asseyri Prison to a safer location by Sunday, 24 October 2021.
HRCM Visits to Asseyri Prison
- 8 to 10 November 2020 – Correction assures HRCM that the juvenile detantion facility inside the Asseyri Prison will be complete in 3 months.
- 16 September 2021 – Juvenile detantion facility inside the Asseyri Prison still incomplete.
The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives stated that the juvenile detention facility at the Asseyri Prison violates the rights and protections afforded to prisoners under the Children’s Rights Protection Act, 2019 (Act No. 19/2019), Juvenile Justice Act, 2019 (Act No. 18/2019), United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (“The Beijing Rules”), General Comment No 24 2019 on children’s rights in the child justice system, and United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules).
