Current abuse of the human rights of political activists, journalists and dissenters in the Maldives involve a pattern of arbitrary arrests and detentions bypassing basic guarantees of due process, such as the right to be told of the reasons for the arrest, the right to have charges served upon the arrestee and the right to trial without undue delay. While some detainees are released following international and domestic protests, others who are charged are imprisoned and then released without formal notification of the charges being dropped against them. Others are pardoned by presidential intervention while yet others are not given this same clemency. The manner in which charges are left pending evidence a common tactic of harassment and intimidation.
Though a range of proposals towards constitutional reform have been announced (including a draft Constitution, the redrawing of electoral boundaries and the introduction of a voter education programme) with multiparty elections to be held in 2008, there is widespread public cynicism as to whether the government headed by President Abdul Maumoon Gayoom is committed to implementing these reform proposals. There is no doubt that if democratic rule is to be enhanced in the Maldives the present totalitarian authority of the presidency will need to be drastically reduced and/or replaced by a politically pluralistic framework which balances powers between the office of the presidency, a democratically functioning legislature and an independent judiciary.
It is imperative that the country’s judicial and legal system is headed by a Supreme Court with judges, including the chief justice, appointed through an independent process and with security of tenure rather than the present arrangement based on dependency on the president. In addition, the Constitution needs to have a justiciable chapter on rights that can be enforced through the Supreme Court, and systematic codes of criminal and civil procedure, evidence and a revised Penal Code should be enacted as well. Moreover, the office of the attorney general must be made independent and divested of the political colour in which it is currently shrouded, and the promulgation of presidential decrees has to stop.
Furthermore, freedoms of speech and expression, association and assembly need to be secured both in law and practice. The Freedom of the Press Bill ought to be redrafted in consonance with modern-day principles and should not be allowed to give rise to new media crimes. Political parties need to be allowed to enjoy their rights of democratic assembly and association, and practices of arbitrarily arresting political activists on charges of high treason or terrorism purely for taking part in a demonstration or engaging in comment critical of the government needs to be halted.
Lastly, bodies vested with the task of monitoring abuses by government officials, such as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), ought to be allowed to function independently and should be staffed by members having established credentials in the field of human rights and chosen though a process of consultation with political parties and civil society rather than purely appointed by the president.
