Formation Of Red Crescent One Step Closer

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