CAT/C/MDV/CO/1
(e)
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on 19 September 2006;
(f)
Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
19 September 2006;
(g)
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, on 5 April 2010;
(h)
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, on 21 September 2011;
(i)
International Labour Organization Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29);
Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105); Minimum Age Convention, 1973
(No. 138); and Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), in January 2013;
(j)
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational
Organized Crime, 2000, on 14 September 2016.
5.
The Committee welcomes the State party’s initiatives to revise its legislation in
areas of relevance to the Convention, including the adoption of:
(a)
The Human Rights Commission Act, on 18 August 2005;
(b)
The Constitution of the Maldives, which contains a Bill of Rights, in 2008;
(c)
The Domestic Violence Prevention Act, in April 2012;
(d)
The Anti-Torture Act, recognizing torture as a distinct criminal offence and
giving effect to the Convention, on 23 December 2013;
(e)
The Prevention of Human Trafficking Act, in 2013;
(f)
The National Integrity Commission Act and subsequent creation of the
National Integrity Commission, in 2015;
(g)
Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, in 2016.
6.
The Committee also welcomes the initiatives of the State party to amend its policies,
programmes and administrative measures to give effect to the Convention, including:
(a)
Designation by the President of the Human Rights Commission of the
Maldives as the national preventive mechanism, on 10 December 2007;
(b)
Adoption of the national strategy on prevention of domestic violence (2014–
2016);
(c)
Appointment of the national committees on the Convention and on its
Optional Protocol by the former President, on 7 February 2016 and the formulation by the
Human Rights Commission of operating guidelines for those committees;
(d)
Establishment by the newly elected President, on 17 November 2018, only
hours after taking the oath of office, of a Commission on Murders and Disappearances,
charged with conducting a “free, independent, and trustworthy investigation” into cases
between 1 January 2012 and 17 November 2018 that were “not properly investigated” and
the announcement by the head of the delegation to the Committee that a new transitional
justice committee/working group is deliberating on the establishment of a separate
commission to review past allegations of torture during that period;
(e)
Affirmation, during the review of the State party report, of initiatives by the
new Government to create a commission on releasing political detainees and a presidential
commission on corruption and asset recovery;
(f)
A commitment by the new Government to uphold the moratorium on the
death penalty and to vote in favour of the draft resolution before the General Assembly on a
moratorium on the use of the death penalty;
(g)
The expressed willingness of the new Government to receive full country
missions by the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice,
reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, and an open invitation for special procedures
mandate holders and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct missions to the
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