Tag: maldives news

UNFPA calls for review of judicial practices surrounding sexual behaviour in the Maldives

The UNFPA has this week released the State of the World Population Report, along with a report focusing on the local context, titled “Reproductive Health Knowledge and Behaviour of Young Unmarried Women in the Maldives”.

The report includes recommendations calling on the state to review existing practices related to the matter within the judicial process, law enforcement, education and health sectors.

Minister of Education Aishath Shiham inaugurated the event, highlighting the state’s plans to resume awareness programs for adolescents in schools in 2014.

“The UNFPA’s Life Skills Package is the program that was most systematically and effectively run in Maldivian schools to tackle the issue of adolescent pregnancies. Over a 1000 people have been trained to be able to conduct this program. I am announcing here today that with the start of the new administrative year in 2014, the UNFPA Life Skill Package will be reintroduced,” she stated.

The minister further noted the importance of including similar concepts in teacher training courses.

Youth sexual behaviour outside marriage

The report states that while the age of marriage has been increased to 18 in the year 2000 – following which the average age of first marriage has risen to 19 in recent years – sexual and reproductive health services and commodity supplies remain available solely to married couples.

It states that while the “underlying assumption is that sexual intimacy does not or should not occur before marriage”, and while this is in accordance with societal and religious views, there is “ample evidence that this is inconsistent with the social realities of youth sexual behaviour”.

The report provides a number of studies supporting their findings, including a youth perception study conducted, in which 90 percent agreed that it is more common for “couples to initiate sexual intercourse before marriage”.

It further notes the existence of young female sex workers, citing the Biological and Behavioural Survey of 2008 which noted a prevalence of “unprotected sex with multiple partners” within the 15 – 17 age group and above.

Another cited study indicated that unsafe practices of abortion are more common among unmarried youth than their married counterparts.

“Pregnancy outside marriage is in fact, a criminal offence…Nevertheless, it has to be acknowledged that sexual activity is a consistent social reality…” the report stated, before pointing out that the issue contributes to the “public health burden of the country”, and that it stems from “a complex mix of health, social and legal consequences, primarily connected to the occurrence of pregnancy outside marriage”.

As the clearest evidence of extra-marital pregnancies, the report cites IGMH’s Family Protection Unit’s data, showing the occurrence of such pregnancies to be the third most common issue among patients it has attended to since it opened in 2006. It states that out of 41 cases recorded in an year, some have resulted from rape and sexual abuse.

“The social and legal implications connected to out of wedlock pregnancy creates an intricate link between pregnancy outside marriage and abortion. Consequently, unsafe abortion is a key issue among young Maldivian women,” it said.

Sexual and reproductive health knowledge

The report highlights that due to societal and religious taboos, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) knowledge among youth – especially unmarried youth – is alarmingly low.

The report states that information related to SRH is taught in schools within the Biology and Islam syllabuses, though not at a meaningful or significant level.

Highlighting the disparity between the number of men and women prosecuted for fornication under Sharia law, the report stated that “paternity testing is not used as admissible evidence in court and the opportunity for men to deny guilt makes male accountability something of a farce”.

The report concluded with a variety of recommendations to the health, education, judicial sectors, as well as media outlets.

In addition to encouraging various forms of awareness raising, the UNFPA called on the law enforcement sector to revise sentencing practices in which gender discrimination occurs, to review the current punitive practice of dissolving marriages if a child is born within a gestation timeframe inconsistent with the duration of marriage, and to review the non-acceptance of paternity testing in cases of extra-marital pregnancies.

Read the full report here (english).

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JSC shuffles nine judges “to strengthen judiciary”

The Judicial Services Commission has announced it will shuffle nine superior court judges in a bid to “strengthen the judiciary.”

The judicial oversight body said the reassignments would uphold public trust in the judiciary and were an opportunity for judges to build capacity and gain additional experience.

The nine reassignments include Criminal Court Chief Judge Abdulla Mohamed who has now been transferred to the post of the Drug Court’s Chief Judge. Judge Abdulla’s military detention in January 2012 precipitated the ousting of former President Mohamed Nasheed. He has been accused of obstructing high profile corruption cases and has been investigated for ethical misconduct.

The Prosecutor General (PG) has charged Nasheed with unlawful arrest of a government employee over Abdulla’s arrest, but the case is currently stalled after Nasheed’s legal team challenged the legitimacy of the appointment of the judges-panel to Hulhumale Magistrates Court, where the trial is being heard.

Criminal Court judges Muhuthaz Fahmy and Abdul Bari Yusuf were reassigned to the Drug Court and Juvenile Court respectively.

Yusuf was suspended in February 2013 over allegations of misconduct and the JSC told local media that despite his reassignment, Yusuf remains suspended. However, if his suspension is lifted, he will start work at the Juvenile Court, the JSC added.

The Family Court’s Ibrahim Ali was changed to the Criminal Court.

Drug Court’s judges Zubair Mohamed and Mohamed Easafulhu were reassigned to the Criminal Court while Abdul Sattar Abdul Hameed was reassigned from the Drug Court to the Civil Court.

The Civil Court’s Ali Naseer was changed to the Family Court and the Family Court’s Hassan Shafeeu was reassigned to the Civil Court. The Juvenile Court’s Mohamed Naeem was changed to the Drug Court.

UN Special Rapporteur for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, issued a report in May 2013 expressing concern over the politicisation of the JSC and judiciary.

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Government to collect statistics on youth unemployment

The Ministry of Youth and Sports has announced it will collect statistics on youth unemployment as part of the government’s pledge to create 94,000 new jobs.

The ruling Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) had pledged to provide vocational training, and help unemployed youth find jobs.

Former President Mohamed Nasheed had started a vocational training programme ‘Hunaru’ worth MVR 360 million (US$23 million) in 2011 to lead 8,500 youth to skilled employment in a variety of fields. However, the programme was stopped in February 2012 following Nasheed

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India’s diplomatic course correction averts impasse: Russia and India Report

“Indian diplomacy averted an impasse in the ties with Maldives through a course correction through past several months,” writes Indian career-diplomat M.K. Bhadrakumar for the Russia & India Report.

Bhadrakumar compares recent elections in both the Maldives and Nepal, assessing their impact on India’s external relations.

“When the ‘pro-Indian’ elected president was overthrown in Male last year, Delhi took umbrage. Its fury was fuelled by the summary termination of a highly lucrative contract of an influential Indian firm for managing the Male international airport.

But Maldives pushed back and the futility of the pressure tactic compelled Delhi to rethink and change tack to an equidistant stance between the warring Maldivian political parties.

Thus, although the recent presidential election in Maldives produced a surprise outcome, Delhi could engage the new power centre with alacrity. President Abdulla Yameen accepted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s invitation to visit Delhi for his first overseas trip as head of state.

However, as any passionate reader of Joseph Conrad would vouchsafe, island states wear a deceptively languid look. There is that certain edginess in the air. Curiously, one major decision taken by the new government in Male is to introduce Arabic language in the curriculum of Maldivian schools. The political elites have not hidden their tilt toward ‘Islamization’ of the Maldivian society.

One way of looking at it is that this is only a variant of cultural nationalism, which is sweeping over the region – India included. But then, it also carries the subtle overtone of an attempt to differentiate the island nation from the ethos of the Indian subcontinent.”

Read more

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Transparency Maldives reveals growing perception of corruption

Transparency Maldives’ Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) survey has revealed that 83 percent of people surveyed felt corruption had increased or stayed the same during the past two years.

The survey of 1,002 people – randomly selected and interviewed by telephone – showed respondents to perceive the People’s Majlis as the country’s most corrupt organisation, with 60 percent feeling the legislature to be ‘extremely corrupt’.

Religious organisations were perceived as the least corrupt organisation, with 37 percent of those asked stating definitively that these organisations were ‘not corrupt’.

Speaking at today’s launch event, President of the Anti-Corruption Commission Hussain Luthfy expressed concern at the indicators, noting a clear lack of trust in state institutions.

With local council elections fast approaching, Luthfy pointed out that a failure to reform local government could also be considered corruption.

“In the past five years, the governance system has been so expensive it has impacted the basic public services. Harbors and schools are falling into disrepair.”

Luthy suggested that the current model “bleeds” MVR800 million from the state’s expenditure each year – nearly five percent of the most recently proposed budget.

When submitting the 2014 budget – currently undergoing revisions – Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad urged the state to reduce the size of local level government.

The current model of more than 1,000 elected councillors established by the Decentralisation Act passed in 2010 by the then-opposition majority parliament was branded “economic sabotage” by the incumbent Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) government, which had proposed limiting the number of councillors to “no more than 220.”

Luthfy went on to urge more transparency within government companies in order to foster an atmosphere in which corruption can be addressed proactively. He suggested that government owned companies often pass resolutions to obstruct the ACC’s investigations.

In a separate statement today, Luthfy argued said the biggest obstacle to the ACC’s fight against corruption was the absence of an anti-corruption bill. He called upon the Majlis – currently considering such a bill – to take the initiative in fighting corruption.

Education

Today’s GCB launch was accompanied by the introduction of a corruption education pack, including five booklets intended to spread awareness of corruption and its impacts on society.

Whilst the GCB figures showed a strong belief that ordinary people could make a difference in the campaign against corruption – with 84 percent agreeing to this statement – the results revealed a lack of will to take action.

Asked if they would be willing to sign a petition asking the government to do more to fight corruption, 86 percent of those surveyed said they wouldn’t. 70 percent said they would not take part in demonstrations against corruption, whilst 61 percent refused to even to raise awareness of corruption through social media.

The most common area in which bribes were paid was said to be land services, with the most frequent reason for giving bribes being ‘to speed things up’.

Earlier this week the ACC alleged corruption in the award of apartments to individuals as part of the Veshifahi Malé housing programme, ordering the invalidation of 139 of the 448 successful applications.

891 GCB respondents stated that they would report an incident of corruption, although only 3 percent admitted to having personally paid a bribe. 85 percent of those who admitted to being asked to pay a bribe said they had refused.

The sample of people interviewed were predomantly male (66 percent) and from urban settings (65 percent). One quarter of respondents worked in the public sector, with 63 percent described as earning a ‘medium’ scale income.

Transparency Maldives, the local chapter of Transparency International (TI)describes the GCB as one of the tools it uses to better understand corruption.

The group’s most widely used indicator – the Corruption Perceptions Index  – was released last week. For the second consecutive year the Maldives was not ranked after TI was unable to gather the necessary data.

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Maldives and China sign 50 million yuan grant aid agreement

The Maldives and China have signed a grant aid agreement worth 50 million yuan (US$ 8.2 million) last week.

The Agreement on Economic and Technical Cooperation is “for the implementation of developmental projects and the advancement of public services,” the President’s Office has previously said.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs Dunya Maumoon signed the agreement on behalf of the Government of Maldives and Mr. Yu Hongyao signed on behalf of the Government of the People’s Republic of China.

China has also pledged assistance to restore Kaafu Atoll Island Dhiffushi Island School after a fire destroyed the school’s offices in November.

The grant aid comes at a time the Maldives is facing dire economic circumstances, with the government unable to afford its huge recurrent expenditure on a bloated civil service and is failing to pay millions of dollars owed to state-owned companies for services such as oil and electricity.

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EC extends local council application deadline

The Elections Commission (EC) has extended the application deadline for candidates who wish to contest in January’s local council elections.

Applications will now be accepted until 3:00 pm on December 10.

The deadline was extended to allow candidates to obtain criminal and debt records from the Maldives Police Services and Superior Courts.

The High Court, Criminal Court and Department of Judicial Administration have opened out of hours in order to serve the large number of requests for criminal and debt records.

The EC has said it expects over 4000 candidates to contest the 1118 seats in local council elections.

Political parties held primaries during the last week to determine candidates who will contest elections on their tickets.

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JSC transfers Judge Adbulla Mohamed from the Criminal Court to the Drug Court

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has today decided to transfer the Chief Judge of the Criminal Court Abdulla Mohamed to same position with the Drug Court.

In a tweet today Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Ahmed Hamza, who is also the member representing the parliament in the JSC, confirmed the decision was made at today’s meeting.

Speaking to Minivan News today Hamza said that the decision was made to strengthen the courts by transferring experienced judges to different courts so that they could share their knowledge and experience with others.

He said about eight judges has been transferred to different courts.

A JSC spokesperson said that he was on vacation and did not have information about the matter.

Newspaper Haveeru reported that a member of the JSC told the paper that Abdulla Mohamed would start work in January next year.

The paper reported that the decision was made as part of a refreshment program.

In January 2012, Criminal Court Chief Judge Abdulla Mohamed was arrested by the MNDF in compliance with a police request. The judge’s whereabouts were not revealed until January 18, when the MNDF has acknowledged receipt but not replied to Supreme Court orders to release the judge.

Prosecutor General (PG) Ahmed Muizz soon joined the High Court and Supreme Courts in condemning the MNDF’s role in the arrest as unlawful, and requesting that the judge be released.

A series of protests were held by the then-opposition political parties calling for the release of the judge which ended with a police and military mutiny on February 2012 resulting in President Mohamed Nasheed’s ouster.

In 2005, then Attorney General Dr Hassan Saeed forwarded to the President’s Office concerns about the conduct of Abdulla Mohamed after he allegedly requested that an underage victim of sexual abuse re-enact hear abuse for the court.

In 2009 – following the election of the current government – those documents were sent to the JSC, which was asked to launch an investigation into the outstanding complaints as well as alleged obstruction of “high-profile corruption investigations”.

The JSC decided not to proceed with the investigation on July 30, 2009. However, in November last year, the JSC completed an investigation into a complaint of ethical misconduct against the judge.

The case was presented to the JSC in January 2010 by former President Nasheed’s member of the JSC, Aishath Velezinee, after Abdulla Mohamed appeared on private network DhiTV and expressed “biased political views”.

In October 2011, the ruling MDP appealed for assistance from the international community over the “increasingly blatant collusion between politicians loyal to the former autocratic President, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and senior members of the judiciary – most of whom were appointed by Gayoom during his thirty years of power.”

The MDP statement also referred to the corruption trial of Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ahmed Nazim, charged with multiple counts of defrauding the former Atolls Ministry, which remains “indefinitely delayed.”

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Finance Ministry’s MVR 300 million budget-support loan “illegal”

A report by the by the Auditor General has revealed that President Dr Mohamed Waheed’s administration violated finance laws in securing a domestic loan worth MVR300 million (US$ 19.45 million) from the Bank of Maldives (BML) as part of its budget-support program.

The report (dhivehi) – based on the audit published at the Auditor General’s (AG) website last Sunday – claimed then Finance Minister Abdulla Jihad had not obtained the required approval from the president and the parliament.

Jihad has hit back, claiming that the loan was taken to avoid financial disaster. He also suggested that the mandated processes for approving government loans had only been introduced to thwart the MDP government in 2010.

The audit was conducted following a request from the parliament’s Public Finance Committee, after opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Ahmed Sameer filed the matter at the committee in July 2012.

Section 5 of the Public Finance Act 2006 (as amended in 2010) states that any loan or credit facility which either the government or a government-owned corporation wishes to obtain, can be taken only after presidential and parliamentary approval.

The audit report stated that despite the legal requirement, Jihad – recently reappointed to the same position by the recently elected President Abdulla Yameen – had signed the letter of sanction on May 28, 2012, one day before the request for approval of the loan was sent to President Waheed.

According to the report, Jihad signed the final loan agreement with BML a day later on May 29, 2012.

A measure taken to prevent a financial disaster

In his defense, the Finance Minister has told local media that the loan was taken out of necessity, to prevent the state from financial disaster.

Jihad claimed that during May 2012, the government faced enormous difficulties following a decline in cash flow. By the end of the month in question, the government had almost exhausted its finances, said Jihad.

Furthermore, the minister claimed that he had consulted with President Waheed and decided to take the loan, but that the parliament had gone to recess.

“At that critical time, we had no other option. That was a measure that had to be taken in order to keep the state running. Hadn’t we done that, the state employees would not have been paid the month’s wages. We ought to consider the situation at the time. At that time we weren’t even able to obtain a loan from the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA),” Jihad told Haveeru.

Blasting the current requirement of parliamentary approval before taking loans, Jihad claimed that no other modern democratic states followed such a practice. Because of the requirement, the government had lost several loans and had become a disgrace in front of most of the international financial organisations, Jihad added.

He also admitted that the amendment brought to the Public Finance Act in 2010 during the administration of former President Mohamed Nasheed was intended to disrupt the government’s functioning.

President Nasheed at the time had no choice but to ratify the amendment as his party was outnumbered when the vote was taken in parliament. The then-opposition now comprises most of the current governing coalition.

Jihad also criticized the AG’s report itself: “I am the Minister. But when the report was compiled, [Auditor General] had asked nothing from me. Of what had happened? So how can this report be accurate?”

Shortcomings

The report also revealed that although the government had formally sought parliamentary approval of the loan on June 13, 2012, by this date the Finance Ministry had already withdrawn the first tranche – MVR200 million (US$ 12.97 million) out of the MVR300 million.

The government withdrew the remainder on June 20, 2012, the report stated.

Furthermore, the report claimed that in the letter sent to the president by Jihad, approval was sought for the loan with a request that it be made part of the US$65 million (MVR 1 billion) overseas loan that gained parliamentary approval as part of the 2012 national budget.

The report claimed that the conditions for the domestic loan from BML, and that of the proposed US$65 million overseas loan differed significantly.

Among the significant differences highlighted in the report, parliament had approved the US$65 million overseas loan with an interest rate of 2 percent while the BML loan had an interest rate of 9 percent subject to annual reviews.

Furthermore, repayment of the US$65 million loan was to commence within 10 years, while the BML loan required the repayment within just two years.

“Therefore, the loan of MVR300 million taken from the Bank of Maldives in the year 2012 had been taken without the approval of the parliament and the president, disregarding the decisions made by the legislature and the Public Finance Act,” concluded the report.

The Auditor General furthermore requested the authorities to take action against those found responsible for the misconduct.

The current government meanwhile has sought for the approval of a US$29 million (MVR 447 million) budget-support loan that is to be taken from the Bank of Ceylon, for the 2014 state budget.

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