Research
This page provides viewers with access to relevant conventions, treaties and legislation addressing human rights. Reports on the Maldivian prison system, Evan Naseem's death and other areas of human rights in the Maldives are also provided. As with the rest of this website, the 'Research' page is to be treated as a live source of material and will be regularly developed. If you are familiar with relevant material which you feel should be included on this website, please contact us. We welcome Dhivehi and English material.
Maldives
History, practices and conditions of the Maldivian prison system were presented in this 2011 report. Researcher Naaz Aminath spoke to Minivan News about the report's release.
The Torture Victims Association of the Maldives (TVA) presented this report in June 2012. Based on interviews and research, the report details the practice of torture and analyzes individual cases in the context of the Maldivian government and international law.
A Presidential Commission submitted this report on December 29, 2003, pursuant to a government mandate issued on September 20, 2003. Upon review the report was criticized as incomplete, and another investigation was ordered under President Mohamed Nasheed in 2011. That report has not been completed.
The publicly available English translation of the Constitution of the Maldives, last amended in 2008, is provided for reference on all points of legal discourse in the Maldives. Chapter 2 addresses human rights.
International
"Torture is a brutal attempt to destroy a person’s sense of dignity and sense of human worth. It acts also as a weapon of war, spreading terror beyond its direct victims to communities and societies....I call on all States that have not done so to ratify the Convention against Torture, and to allow individual complaints by victims under its instruments...."
Read the full delivery on Minivan News.
Signatories to this agreement commit to ending the practice of torture in their respective countries.
The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) identifies key areas of concern for the country's human rights record. In November 2011, an annual study reported that of the 500 complaints of human rights violations received that year, 77 were cases of unlawful detention and 23 were cases of torture.