Tag: Ismail Hilath Rasheed

Maldives faces “significant” human rights challenges, despite “considerable progress”: Amnesty International

Amnesty International has announced that “significant human rights challenges” need to be addressed following a nine day visit to the Maldives, where it met with senior government figures and civil society organisations.

In a statement released Thursday (April 25), Amnesty International said that despite the country making “considerable progress” during the last few years in promoting and protecting civil rights, it retained concerns over issues like freedom of expression and wider accountability in the criminal justice system.

The findings were made as part of initial observations by Amnesty’s South Asia Director Polly Truscott and the NGO’s South Asia Researcher Abbas Faiz following a visit to the country between April 16 to April 24 this year.

Speaking to Minivan News at the conclusion of her visit this week, Truscott detailed some of the key human rights challenges facing the country.  Among her observations was the controversial flogging sentence handed to a 15 year-old girl over charges of ‘fornication’, which she believed to be just the “tip of the iceberg” in regards to wider issues over how sexual offence victims were treated in the country.

The current government has already appealed the flogging sentence, while also pledging to move ahead with wider legal reforms concerning the possibility of reviewing the use of flogging as a punishment.

“On a positive note, Amnesty International welcomes the efforts now made by Maldivian authorities, in particular the President of the Maldives, to strengthen measures to ensure that any child who has been sexually abused receives protection, not punishment,” the NGO’s statement read.

“These include a review of all cases of children who have been investigated for ‘fornication,’ that is, sex outside marriage. Under international human rights law no one who either engages in consensual sexual activity or who is a victim of sexual assault, should be criminalised or punished, regardless of their age.”

Amnesty said it also held concerns over a lack of “effective investigations” into several high-profile attacks on media personnel, as well as the murder of MP Dr Afrasheem Ali.

The NGO has called on the government of President Dr Mohamed Waheed to end an alleged culture of “impunity for the arbitrary and abusive use of force by security forces against demonstrators” following the controversial transfer of power on February 7, 2012.

Amnesty International said its calls regarding allegations of “excessive force” by police were in line with recommendations included in the Commonwealth-backed Commission of National Inquiry (CNI) released last year.

The full Amnesty International statement can be read here.

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Self-exiled blogger Hilath speaks at UN Human Rights Council

Maldivian journalist and blogger Ismail ‘Hilath’ Rasheed last week spoke at the United Nation’s Palace of Nations during the 21st session of the Human Rights Council (HRC).

In a side event dedicated to the Maldives, Hilath spoke of his fears of rising fundamentalism in his home country and called for the international community to keep a close watch on the Maldives to ensure the protection of human rights and democratic freedoms.

“Maldives may be a small country but it is not insignificant. It lies at a strategic crossroads and the cultural and political invasion of Maldives by Saudi-funded Wahhabi extremism will definitely have regional and global repercussions,” said Hilath.

Hilath was forced to flee the Maldives earlier this year after an assassination attempt left him within millimetres of death when a group of men slashed his throat just yards from his home in Male’.

Hilath later attributed the assassination attempt to Islamic radicals who had threatened his life on numerous previous occasions.

As well as making international headlines, Hilath’s case has been championed by both Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and, more recently, by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).

Both organisations called for an immediate investigation into the attack, the latter criticising the authorities for failing to adequately investigate the incident.

“Until 2003, for the past 800 years, the Maldives had been a moderate and liberal Islamic country,” said Hilath, whose speech is also available on his blog which has been blocked by the authorities since November.

“However, in the last years of [Maumoon Abdul] Gayoom, due to poverty and oppression, and also as a result of the forced imposition on the Maldivian people of Gayoom’s own version of Islam, extremism took a hold, and though it is still a minority, it is a very vocal and formidable one that both [Mohamed] Nasheed’s and [Mohamed] Waheed’s governments have been unable to tackle,” he continued.

“But a stark difference has been that while Nasheed’s government officially acknowledged there was an extremist problem in Maldives, Waheed is refusing to acknowledge the problem. While Nasheed sought to keep extremism in check by bringing them into his government, in the form of the Adhaalath Party, Waheed came into power on the back of extremism, and therefore is giving free reign to extremists,” said Hilath.

Prior to this year’s transfer of presidential power, Hilath suffered a fractured skull after an attack during a silent protest in support of religious tolerance last December.

He was later arrested in relation to the protest after the religiously conservative Adhaalath Party (AP) wrote a letter to the police.

This prompted Amnesty International to declare him a prisoner of conscience and to demand his immediate release.

The 2008 constitution defines the Maldives as a one hundred percent Sunni Islamic nation and makes observance of the faith a prerequisite of citizenship.

“What is worrying is that while Nasheed allowed extremists to spread their propaganda through private channels, Waheed’s government is directly sanctioning the promotion of the extremist agenda through official religious channels,” said Hilath.

“The Adhaalath Party, under whom extremists operate, and under whose umbrella the Islamic Affairs Ministry has been under both Nasheed and Waheed, is now using Friday prayer sermons, also known as khuthubas, to spew bigotry, mysogyny, homophobia, xenophobia, racism, sexism and other sorts of discrimination, and to issue fatwas or religious rulings proclaiming the arts and humanities, such as photography, art, music, singing, dancing and acting as haram or sinful,” he added.

Two days after Hilath’s speech in Geneva, the Islamic Ministry distributed a circular calling for the banning of mixed gender dancing.

This news put the Maldives in the global media spotlight for the second time this month after the sentencing of a 16 year old girl to 100 lashes for fornication – in accordance with Islamic Sharia – had already made international headlines.

Last Friday also saw a gathering of religious protesters outside of the United Nations (UN) building to register their anger at the anti-Islamic film “Innocence of Muslims”.

Protesters burned the American flag and waved banners, one of which read “Maldives: Future graveyard of Americans and Jews”.

Repeated chants were heard urging President Waheed to return America’s US$20,000 contribution to restore the historical Buddhist artifacts in the museum, which were destroyed by a mob of vandals during February’s political turmoil.

Some protesters stated that if the idols were restored, they would promptly destroy them again.

In response to the issue of dancing, President’s spokesperson Abbas Adil Riza told the Associated Free Press (AFP) this week that the circular was not legally enforceable and that the Maldives would always be “a very tolerant society”.

“It is deeply regrettable that both Nasheed and Waheed have done little or nothing to curb extremism as every political party in Maldives seems afraid of extremists,” said Hilath.

“What is really depressing now is that since Waheed’s government is backed by Islamic extremists, who in turn have been backed by rogue police and military officers, extremists are now acting with impunity,” he added.

“The only hope we have in saving the Maldives is by the international community keeping a close watch. I, therefore, welcome UN Human Rights Commissioner Ms. Navi Pillay’s decision to assign a Human Rights Advisor to the Maldives as rising Islamic extremism is causing serious setbacks to human rights, freedom of expression and democracy in the Maldives,” he said.

After visiting the Maldives last November, Pillay called for a moratorium on corporal punishment and criticised the Muslim-only clause in the constitution.

Protesters subsequently gathered outside the UN building, calling for Pillay’s own arrest and flogging.

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Blogger arrested as police investigate both protests

Controversial blogger Ismail ‘Hilath’ Rasheed was arrested this evening for his involvement in last Saturday’s ‘silent protest’ for religious tolerance, which turned ended in violent after several individuals attacked the group with stones. Hilath was taken to the hospital with head injuries.

According to the Sub Inspector Ahmed Shiyam, Hilath was arrested under a Criminal Court order issued today.

Rasheed’s arrest follows the blocking of his blog by the Communications Authority of the Maldives (CAM) on the order of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs. The Ministry made the request on the grounds that the site contained anti-Islamic material.

Police are currently interrogating some of the approximately 30 individuals who gathered at Artificial Beach on Saturday. Calls for an investigation of the protest were made by religious conservative Adhaalath party, NGO Jamiyyathu Salaf, and ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik.

While pursuing its investigation of the protest for religious tolerance, police have also summoned the developer of the website 23December.com, which this week published slogans calling for the murder of anti-Islamic activists in what organisers later described as a “technical mistake”.

Developer Ali Ahsan told Haveeru that police wanted to understand who was responsible for the website’s conception, development and published material.

“The police also questioned whether those inappropriate phrases or those slogans [calling for the killing of people] were present when the information was published on the website,” he said.

Ahsan, who also edits online publication DhiIslam, said police had confiscated the hard drive used for the development of 23December.com, Haveeru reports.

The investigation into the aggressive error began yesterday, when police questioned Adhaalath Party President Sheikh Imran Abdulla and Civil Coalition official Abdulla Mohamed over the death threats.

Sheikh Imran and Mohamed did not speak directly to the press, however their lawyer, former State Minister of Islamic Ministry Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed, confirmed that police asked them about the slogans published on the website.

Shaheem said that slogans calling for murder were not on the website when it was launched, adding that the “content were manipulated by some people spying on the website”.

Abdullah, who is the lead organiser of the the protest, also told Minivan News on Tuesday that the team had not seen the slogans calling for murder until the day after the launch. ”We corrected the mistake as soon as it was brought to our notice,” Abdullah said.

He said the slogans were earlier attributed as a “mistake on technical team’s side” after they identified some loop holes in the website security, adding that their “suspicions were confirmed” when the website was hacked on Tuesday morning.

President’s Office Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair today issued a statement blaming organisers of the 23 December demonstration for disrupting public order to achieve “hidden agendas”.

He said he not believe that removing the violent slogans from the promotional website was sufficient proof of non-violent intentions.

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Foreign Ministry opposes UN Human Rights Commissioner’s call for debate on flogging

The Foreign Ministry does not support open debates on issues raised by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, namely the provision for flogging as a punishment for extra-marital intercourse and the requirement that all Maldivians be Muslims.

“What’s there to discuss about flogging?” Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Naseem was reported as saying in newspaper Haveeru. “There is nothing to debate about in a matter clearly stated in the religion of Islam. No one can argue with God.”

Speaking to Minivan News, Naseem confirmed his statement but did not wish to comment further.

Pillay said flogging was “a form of punishment that is cruel and demeaning to women” and observed that in her travels in Islamic countries “apart from the Maldives and one other country that practices stoning, flogging is not a practice that is condoned.”

She further claimed that the Maldives is signatory to international treaties that are legally-binding obligations, “and such a practice conflicts with these obligations undertaken by the Maldives.” She said human rights conforms with Islam.

Naseem today advised Minivan News that the Maldives had submitted certain reservations to said conventions, including articles on gender equality and freedom of religion, and on these points the country could not be held legally accountable by an international body.

Pillay also called for amendments to the constitutional provision mandating subscription to Islam.

Since her press conference on Thursday, November 24, protestors bearing slogans “Ban UN,” “Flog Pillay” and “Defend Islam” have demanded apologies from Pillay and Parliament, and called for Pillay to be prosecuted in the Maldives for her comments about the national constitution.

Islamic Minister Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari opposed Pillay’s critiques. Haveeru reports he also backed political parties including the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) and Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), and several MPs and religious groups who also  condemned the UN human rights chief’s comments.

In discussions with President Mohamed Nasheed, ministers and the judiciary, Pillay advised “permanent changes in the law [to] engineer a practical moratorium on flogging.”

NGO network Civil Society Coalition later announced a nation-wide mass protest on December 23 against the government’s alleged efforts to securalise the country.

Speaking with Minivan News today, President’s Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair said he believed Pillay’s message focused more on the degrading implications of flogging women than on its portrayal of Islam. “Pillay called for a debate on punishment and how it is administered – these are two separate debates,” he said, distinguishing between Islam and the State.

Zuhair also suggested that the court procedure used to sentence individuals accused of extra-marital fornication to flogging was incomplete.

In response to Pillay’s urging for a debate “to open up the benefits of the constitution to all and to remove that discriminatory provision [requiring every citizen be a Muslim],” Zuhair said “The government’s religious policy is based upon the insights of religious scholars. The government has not made available the means for anyone to defy or ridicule our religion, and it will not do so.”

According to Zuhair, the involvement of religious scholars in the nation’s religious policies is a distinguishing feature of ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP).

“These are the free times for religious scholars to speak their minds and not be subscribed into one state-sponsored brand of Islam,” he said.

When asked to relate his statement to the Islamic Ministry’s recent censorship of Ismail Hilath Rasheed’s blog, Zuhair said the matter belonged to the Majlis.

“The government cannot be held accountable for the contents of a constitution drawn up by the peoples’ Majlis. Any issues with the constitution will be addressed there.”

Zuhair emphasised that the government supports freedom of expression and assembly to the widest extent provided by the constitution, but he reiterated that the government would adhere to policies advocated by religious scholars as necessary.

Local media in the Maldives widely took Pillay’s remarks on the constitution out of context by reporting only half her sentence.

Miadhu Editor Gabbe Latheef had asked Pillay during Thursday’s press conference, “If you believe we have a Constitution, why are you speaking against our Constitution?” Her reply, “I don’t believe you have a Constitution, you have a constitution. The constitution conforms in many respects to universally respected human rights. Let me assure you that these human rights conform with Islam,” was partially reported by local media as, “I don’t believe you have a Constitution.”

When asked about the impact of the flawed reports on the protests, Zuhair said it suggested the mistake was intentional and demonstrated “a strong political bias”.

“Most media is tied to the opposition parties which were defeated in first round of the election. They are tied by a common rope in that they all include leaders of the formerly-ruling Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP). MDP doesn’t have a supportive media outlet, even in the state media. Any establishment or institution here with 50 or more staff will have some defeated and bitter people who don’t believe in the government,” he surmised.

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