Day: January 21, 2007

The Minister of Gender and Family, Aishath Mohamed Didi, faced tough criticism on Friday over Maldives’ ban on the election of women to the presidency and vice-presidency

She described the prohibition as “odd” and “an anachronism” as she presented reports to the UN General Assembly’s Committee in New York on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

One expert said Luxembourg was the only other country with such a prohibition, but it was a monarchy where the Head of State, regardless of gender, had little political power, whereas the opposite was true of the Maldives President. The ban merely reinforced gender stereotypes and justified discrimination on the basis of gender.

Echoing that sentiment, another expert noted that Islamic countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh had elected female leaders, pointing out that neither Sharia nor the Koran prohibited women from holding political office. The Maldives’ next country report should show that the country’s reservations regarding political and public life, as well as marriage and family life, had been lifted.

The Minister said the government was considering the withdrawal of the reservations and had proposed to remove the constitutional provision barring women from holding the country’s highest political office. Committee members were invited to discuss the matter with Maldives legislators and to push for those changes before the nation’s Parliament.

Other questions discussed today focused on why women could not become judges, and the level at which debate was taking place to change that; the legal implications of gender discrimination in the absence of a women’s rights law; and the changing mandate of the high-level Gender Equality Council.

She said there was a provision for a quota permitting the President to appoint eight parliamentarians, including four women and four men, adding that she had advocated for the quota as a necessary temporary measure but had met resistance, with political factions claiming that women were not fit to hold the presidency, ministerial or parliamentary positions. Others claimed that quotas discriminated against men.

The Minister said the question of eliminating the gender barrier in the judiciary was under consideration by ministers and judges. Debate was also ongoing at the community level and in the media, according to another delegate. The Justice Minister had announced the Government’s intention to appoint female judges under the mandate of the Judicial Service Commission.

However, the Minister acknowledged that judges and magistrates had not been sensitised to gender issues, partly because their heavy case loads made it difficult for them to participate in programmes run by the Ministry of Gender and Family. New training starting in

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Ahmed Abbas, the prominent political cartoonist and designer of Maldivian banknotes, was brought to court from Maafushi jail this morning for a case surrounding a quote he gave to Minivan Daily newspaper.

His court appointment, which was scheduled for 9:30am at the High Court in Male’, was postponed for a week after Abbas was unable to bring a lawyer. He was only informed of the court appointment in the middle of the night, and was given no means to contact his lawyer.

Abbas, who has been imprisoned since early November, was quoted in the newspaper on August 2, 2005, saying: “What we should do to those in the Star Force [police] who beat us, is to seek them out individually and for us to act in such a manner that makes them feel that beatings result in pain, otherwise they will not be subdued.”

Abbas, who has been labelled as a “prisoner of conscience” by human rights NGO, Amnesty International, sensationally sought refuge in the UN building in the capital Male’ on November 2 after being sentenced in absentia to 6 months imprisonment by the Government for inciting violence against police. The UN was unable to offer him sanctuary.

Since then, his daughter Elena Ahmed Abbas (Dhombee), delivered a letter to the UN Resident Coordinator in the Maldives, Patrice Coeur-Bizot, asking for his “swift intervention” to help secure her father’s release. That was in late November 2006, but her father remains in jail.

The government has recently fallen back into its habit of bullying the independent media after a relatively quiet period. Recently Minivan Daily’s Deputy-Editor, Nazim Sattar, was summoned to court for a case about the same article. Nazim is accused of having written the article and is being tried for “disobedience to order.”

Phillip Wellman, a journalist with this website, has also been deported and blacklisted for a period of two years. The government says he does not have permission to be in the country after a previous expulsion. Wellman was thrown out of the country in early November last year after being arrested in Thinadhoo, Ghaafu Daalu Atoll, while covering a planned opposition protest on the island.

Mohamed Yooshau, Thinadhoo correspondent for Minivan Daily was also recently given a sentence of 4 months’ banishment to a remote island after being convicted of “disobedience to order”. The sentence was suspended for three years.

The charges came after he visited the Thinadhoo Island Office to ask the Island Chief why two government employees, Shaheed Mohamed and Ibrahim Ahmed, also members of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party, had been fired.

All of the cases are targeted at the Minivan organisation, which runs Dhivehi language newspaper and website, Minivan Daily, this English language website, and Minivan Radio – whose signal is scrambled in Male’ and operates despite a government ban on private broadcasting.

The Maldives currently ranks 144th in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, slightly lower than Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but higher than Russia and Iraq.

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Government and NGO bureaucrats have taken a step closer to forming a Red Crescent Society for the Maldives.

Nominees from civil society, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the government met at the Ministry of Health on Thursday for the first meeting of a new planning group to help form the local aid organisation.

The group will build on work done over the past 16 months by volunteers. The meeting comes after another committee issued its recommendations after the first phase of its work in Male’ last November.

The formation of a Maldives Red Crescent has been subject to some controversy. Negotiation has taken more than a year and the organisation is not yet in operation.

There have also been allegations of government meddling to limit the influence of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) within the organisation.

The IFRC insists there is a due process to follow and that politics will have no place in the new organisation. It says the time taken to form the group is not unusual, and it takes up to two or three years in some countries.

They say they are working hard to ensure the Red Crescent’s personnel respect their seven principles; humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, universality.

The new planning group will now work to achieve four tasks. Firstly, to complete the holding of elections for delegates from Male to a MRC General Assembly (all other atolls have selected representatives) Secondly, to seek approval from the Geneva-based joint commission for the statues governing the MRC. Thirdly, to finalise arrangements for the issuing of a Presidential decree which would official bring the MRC into being. And finally, to hold the national General Assembly of the MRC

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Below is a copy of an email Minivan News sent to Director of DiameriCENAPS, Dr. Shafiu on January 14.

DiameriCENAPS is the company chosen by the National Narcotics Control Board (NNCB), which is headed by Dr. Abdulla Waheed, to provide drug rehabilitation services in the Maldives. According to state newspaper Haveeru it will charge Rf. 15 000 per month for each client.

The company is run and owned by three directors – Mr. Terence T. Gorski, and American addiction guru and two Maldivians, Dr. Mohamed Shafiu and tourism mogul Mohamed Fahmi.

We wrote to Dr. Shafiu with questions from a concerned reader. After more than a week, we have not received a response, so we are making the email public in the hope DiameriCENAPS will respond. We also called Mohamed Fahmi to arrange a visit to the Himmafushi rehab centre, as Dr. Shafiu suggested. Fahmi refused to allow us to visit and told us: “There is nothing we want to share with the public at this moment.”

It is still not clear if 120 jobs at the Rehab Centre are secure, and what has happened to those government employees.

Letter below:

Dear Dr. Shafiu,

We have had an email from a reader asking some specific questions about your company.

I feel it is important that Minivan News put these questions to you, in order that your company may be as transparent and accountable as possible.

I hope you may be able to answer the questions for our readers. If not, please can you refer us to the appropriate government representative. Many thanks in advance.

The questions we have received are:

“What is the basis on which such an initiative is justified in operating for
profit in Maldives?

How many other companies were considered before this particular one got the contract?

What were the criteria for the choice? Who made these choices? How transparent were these processes?

What is it about this model that makes it the right one for Maldives? Who did this research?

How will the effectiveness of this program be monitored and when? Who is responsible for this monitoring and how are they related to the program?

Also, if government enforces some convicts to undergo the 90 day schedule, what is the basis on which people will be selected? Surely there must be some legal issues that need to be resolved for such a stance. Has this been done elsewhere?

I would also like to know how the religious aspect is included in a model based on science? In many ways the latter tends to be the basis on which the selection of this model is validated. In many ways, the basic tenets of science tend to negate any religious beliefs. Science is an enterprise that relies on a rationality that does not entertain any Creator. I am very interested to see how this is made possible within an already established, registered “model”. Does it allow for such flexibility? And if so how?”

Kind Regards,

Minivan News on behalf of a reader who wants to remain anonymous

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