Amnesty International has called upon the Maldives to establish a moratorium on flogging, and to annul all convictions for the crime of fornication.
The human rights NGO has made the recommendations as part of its submission for the 60th session of the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women later this month.
“Laws criminalizing ‘fornication’ or ‘adultery’ can act as a deterrent to women and girls reporting rape because they fear being prosecuted if their allegations are not believed,” reads the submission.
The committee is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
In its submission for the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review, released last month, Amnesty argued that human rights in the Maldives in general had deteriorated over the past four years.
While having ratified CEDAW in 1993, the Maldives has maintained reservations to any provision which may contradict the principles of Islamic Sharia enshrined in the country’s Constitution.
“As frequently highlighted by UN treaty bodies and UN Special Procedures, including CEDAW, flogging constitutes a cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and the criminalization of fornication is a violation of the rights to privacy and bodily autonomy,” said Amnesty.
The NGO reported that attempts to gain statistics of the incidence of flogging from the Prosecutor General’s Office had been unsuccessful.
New regulations for flogging introduced by the Supreme Court last October noted that the offender must be of sound mind, must not be pregnant, and must not have an illness that could endanger his or her life due to flogging.
Moreover, a sentence for flogging must be implemented after the convict has either exhausted the appeal process or declined to appeal the verdict in the specified period.
Information previously made available by the Department of Judicial Administration showed that, while applicable to both men and women, flogging is largely discriminatory against women in practice.
“In 2013, the office of the Prosecutor General told Amnesty International that convictions were primarily based on confessions, and that if the accused denied the allegations, the charge of ‘fornication’ would normally be dropped,” read the report.
“The office said men usually denied such allegations, and were therefore not charged. This was also true for some women, unless they had become pregnant or were under pressure from their communities. In such cases they admitted to the allegations and were charged.”
Additionally, Amnesty’s submission to the committee recommends that the Maldives bring laws on rape and other forms of sexual violence into line with international human rights standards.
Amnesty also called upon government to investigate and prosecute all allegations of rape and other forms of sexual violence and ensure that anyone who reports rape or other forms of sexual violence is provided with appropriate support services.
While polls conducted in recent years suggest that two thirds of Maldivians would support a moratorium on the practice, public criticism of the practice has caused unrest.
After UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called for a moratorium while speaking in the People’s Majlis in 2011, protesters gathered outside the United Nations Building in Malé, calling for her arrest.
Related to this story
The culture of flogging in the Maldives: a systematic abuse of human rights
Two-thirds of Maldivians back moratorium on flogging: survey
Supreme Court enacts new regulations on flogging
Maldives’ human rights worsening, Amnesty tells UN
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Mordis is a nation of hypocrites.
You kill someone in cold blood. The criminal gets away, cos Mordisians are too soft.
You steal millions. Instead of the heavenly verdict of chopping hands off, the criminal gets away. Mordisians are too soft.
An unmarried girl gets pregnant, then all of sudden everyone goes holy and verdict of public lashes gets executed, sooner than you can say what! The man of course gets away, giving the girl the virginal birth. The men, salivating, watches the flogging.
You find a penthouse magazine, the boy gets banished for 6 months.
It's a mans world. It's a stupid mans wet dreams being played out by the camels-funded retards in politics.
Really how more stupid can we be?
Every one, in support of their belief, talks about how powerful and divine their gods are. No body even asks why the gods made the mess of the world it is, now.
What a joke. Asking to disobey our creator and to obey these guys who does not have a concern over gay marriages, mother marrying son, daughter marrying father, etc.. And in their society due to unmarried relationships they do not know whose child is who.. they want know whether they are marriyng their sister or not... They want our society also to follow those rules....
@mohammed
Exact right. Amnesty is run by Jews otherwise they can say something to Israel but Amnesty stay silent on this issue!!
"While having ratified CEDAW in 1993, the Maldives has maintained reservations to any provision which may contradict the principles of Islamic Sharia enshrined in the country’s Constitution."
Well then Maldives didn't really "ratify" this convention if it doesn't follow all the recommendations. Let me guess, the government got some kind of cash for signing and "ratifying" these regulations and then never actually honored the enforcement. Then will claim it's violating their right to religious freedom. Then give all the cash back you got from claiming to give a shit about human rights listed in this convention.
@Mohamed
You criticizing incest is pretty rich considering the cousin marrying and incest that goes on daily in Maldives.
When flogging is done by muslims its a bad thing. When this is implemented in Singapore everybody is hush. Actually its truly barbaric how they do it in Singapore. They tie the person to a stretcher butt naked and then they whip the person real hard. With the first stroke skin breaks and blood starts to come. There are videos of this in youtube if someone is interested. Compared that to how we flog here, and the kuffar will see how lenienet we are.
But that's not the point. Here we have local kuffar trying to tarnish the image of the country to get affectionate comments from the Western colonial masters in europe. Not sure this comment will pass.
Couldn't stop laughing when reading your comment dear Mohamed..so you think being married is a guarantee that you are the actual father of the child,a loving relationship without marriage is not? Of course in Maldivistan nobody has sex outside of marriage..oh no no heavens no! If you are a father I'd suggest you have a little thing called 'DNA test' done..oh wait science doesn't count as actual evidence over there..seriously..lol
I called up western countries to stop tortures that happens in western countries.
When done in public its called flogging, when a husband uses his stick to hit his woman at home is called domestic abuse.
@hero
The West doesn't promise not to torture in return for money or aid packages from you. So it really isn't the same thing. Yes, the West tortures people and so do you. But your government signs treaties that it doesn't honor in order to get handouts from the West. Then you cry like a bunch of babies when we point out that you're not holding up your end of the deal. Don't take the cash and don't make the agreements. But you guys love those big head dollars!
Flogging in Muslim countries is just as bad or worse than capital punishment carried out in America.
But then again, Amnesty has spoken out against that too, so Amnesty is acting fairly in this case, based on their values.
@mode
Do they flog rape victims in America?
@Maldivian. You scum believe that when a person get raped, the perpetrator must need to go free.
@Waste of Time. Do you mean that what ever torture happening in western countries are completely fine .
Vow, I can now clearly see why Dictator Nasheed and his thugs want to westernize this country.
@hero
I was saying that you and your government are hypocrites for taking money from infidel organizations and in return promising to enforce human rights agreements that you DO NOT follow. Is that clear enough for you? This is called fraud because you take the cash and sign the agreement without following through with your side of the agreement.
You can point out the faults of other countries all day long and play the blame game (your favorite pass time). But it doesn't change the FACT that you and your government are still guilty of fraud and human rights violations.
The West tortures too and it is wrong. But I don't recall any infidel countries signing human rights agreements with Maldives for ruffiya handouts. That is what we are talking about here.