The Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid today welcomed the Declaration signed by Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to recognize the individual complaints’ procedure
The Minister of Foreign Affairs His Excellency Abdulla Shahid today welcomed the Declaration signed by His Excellency Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to recognize the individual complaints’ procedure under the Convention Against Torture.
“The decision by the President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to sign the Declaration in relation to Article 22 of the Convention Against Torture is a major milestone by this Government to ensure that the highest standards of human rights are upheld in the country. It demonstrates the Government’s progressive and forward-looking policy stance on human rights, by recognizing the competence of the Committee Against Torture to look into complaints and allegations of torture made by individuals in the Maldives. It also completes a pledge made by the Government in November 2018 to sign the declaration, when the Maldives presented its initial report under the Convention.”
The individual complaints procedures of human rights treaties form an integral part of the system, and allows individuals to complain about the violation of their human rights directly to the Committee, and brings real meaning to the rights contained in these instruments. In September this year, the Maldives ratified the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is the communications procedure for that particular convention.
Under Article 22 of the Convention Against Torture, the Government of Maldives made the declaration recognizing the competence of the Committee Against Torture to scrutinize individual complaints within the jurisdiction of the Maldives. The Maldives acceded to the Convention Against Torture in 2004, and its Optional Protocol in 2006".
ENDS