Maldives adopts UPR report

Via Maldives Traveller The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted the Maldives' Universal Periodic Review (UPR) outcome report on 16 March 2011. The session was webcast live from Geneva, Switzerland and special viewing was arranged by the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives at classroom number one, Dharubaaruge. Members and media personnel attended the viewing, which also welcomed the general public. The adoption of the UPR comes as a major milestone in Maldives since matters of human rights have long been in question in the archipelago, which has a population of over 300,000. Ongoing efforts to strengthen policies regarding...

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Posted in: Report

Disempowered women in Maldivian society

By Aminath Arif | March 21st, 2011 | via Minivan News I looked at the women outside the Family Court. Some women were pregnant, some were already young mothers. More women came and went, many with an expression either of frustration, desperation, depression, or anger. Some were fighting to be divorced, some were being divorced, but most of them were fighting for the rights of their children for the maintenance money from their father. ‘Maintenance money’ sounds technical and cold. It is money that children need from their fathers for their basic needs to be met. The Maldivian divorce regulation grants a child Rf 300 (US$23)...

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Posted in: Society

‘G-Spot’ doesn’t exist, contends shop owner in ongoing case against Economic Development Ministry

By Ahmed Nazeer | March 17th, 2011 | via Minivan News Mohamed Nizam, the owner of a shop in Male’ called ”G-Spot” has sued the Economic Development Ministry after it was declined permission to operate as a business because of its name, reported SunFM. Today the first hearing of the case was conducted in the Civil Court. SunFM reported that in the court, Nizam said that the name was first approved by the Economic Development Ministry and was also registered in the ministry. He also said that he had spent a lot of money making the name board of the shop, printing paper bags and tags, all of which were done in the name of...

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Posted in: Society

UN Adopts Maldives Human Rights Report

16th March 2011, Geneva; The United Nations Human Rights Council today adopted the Maldives' Universal Periodic Review (UPR) outcome report containing a summary of the human rights situation in the country and a series of recommendations by the Maldives' international partners as to how the situation could be improved. Under the UPR process, each Member State of the UN must undergo a review of its human rights situation every four years. Speaking at the adoption, the Maldives Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, H.E. Ms. Iruthisham Adam, welcomed the UPR process as “a unique and useful exercise” which has “encouraged us to think...

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Posted in: Report