EASY ACCESS TO JUSTICE FOR ALL INCLUDING VULNERABLEPERSONS IN MALDIVES
Hassan Haneef＊

I. INTRODUCTION
Access to justice is vital when it comes to human rights. Every person, be it child or adult, both men andwomen, has the right to have their voices heard and acknowledged. In a perfect justice system, everyone
should be impartial and non-discriminatory against others and practice integrity and hold people who arewrong accountable. They should have a system implemented, where everyone can easily have access to legal
awareness, legal aid, legal protection etc. While the developed countries have these kinds of highly
functioning systems in place, they still face major obstacles when it comes to providing justice. Therefore, it isno surprise that Maldives, a country which is scattered in its geographical form, finds it difficult to provide aperfect justice system to all.
A. Current Situation
The legal and justice sector of the Maldives has undergone a number of changes over the last decades;
however, it is still in its transitional stage with a bright future. Several UN conventions such the Convention
on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Rules etc. have been injected into the legal system and embraced by all. This
was the stepping stone for the start of introducing other laws and regulations which helped the generalpublic, especially vulnerable groups to gain easy access to justice.
The general public of the Maldives had a low level of trust and respect for law enforcement, thegovernment and the judiciary in the past. But due to the introduction of the laws and regulations which camefrom signing the above-mentioned conventions, people started becoming more aware of their rights and how
to get the justice needed.
B. Access to Justice for Children and Women
1. Laws and Regulations
With the ratification of the CRC in 1990, Maldives implemented law 9/91 “Law on the protection of therights of the child”, which gave children several rights that protected them from abuse and negligence.
Regulation 6.1, “Regulation on conducting trials, investigations and sentencing fairly for offences committedby minors”, was brought into existence in 2006 in adherence to law 9/91, in order to maintain the fairness ininvestigations and trials against minors. This law prevented any kind of discrimination or injustice that may
face the minor during investigation or trial. In 2009, Act 12/2009, “Special Provisions Act to deal with Child
Sex Abuse Offenders”, was instigated, making it much easier for law enforcement and the judiciary to attainjustice for children.
When CEDAW was signed, it freed most women from the discriminations of the society. Most of the time,the main reasons that women are denied justice is due to discrimination based on Maldivian culture and social
beliefs. In the past women did not have the right to vote nor did they have the right to work or hold equal
positions and pay as men. For example, before CEDAW, women faced a lot of sexual harassment anddiscrimination within the workplace, which was not taken seriously, and they did not have a support systemor a way of legally getting justice for these kinds of crimes. With the ratification of CEDAW by Maldives,
these matters were addressed and women now have a good legal system to fight for their rights.
A lot of domestic violence cases did not get reported in the past due to the lack of confidence in the＊Superintendent of Police, Maldives Police Service, Republic of Maldives.

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governmental and judicial systemsʼ ability to provide them justice by seeing them as victims and also due tothe fact it is often a hidden issue, where the victim silently lives in humiliation and indignity. Introducing theruling of the “Domestic Violence Act” (Act No. 3/2012) gave a lot of women hope especially for those who
were trapped in domestic violence situations. As the Act clearly and categorically identified domestic
violence as a criminal offence1, the implementation of this act changed the social perspective towards thissensitive issue. As a result, statistics show an increasing number of domestic violence cases lodged by women2.
2. Legal Bodies and Referral Systems
Maldives consists of 1,190 islands, segmented into 20 atolls3 and each of these atolls consists of more than
one Police Station and a Family and Child Service Centre (FCSE) which deals with child protection. The
presence of these agencies in the islands provides easy access to justice to all and brings about a swift
triumph, eradicating the mentality that people living in rural areas of Maldives do not have access to justice.
NGOs such as Hope for Women, the Society for Health Education (SHE), Advocating the Rights of theChild (ARC), the Maldives Association of Physical Disables (MAPD) make it easier for vulnerable groups toattain justice within the society.
The current child referral system set in place by the Maldives Police Service, the Ministry of Law and
Gender and the Ministry of Education, ensures that every child who suffers any kind of abuse and neglect
does not seep through unnoticed. A reporting application “AHAN” and call center “1412” (established in May2017)4 are a few of the measures which were introduced in order to make it easier for the general public toreport violence against children anonymously, thus making sure that even abuse from a family member,teacher, neighbour or a person in a position of trust does not go unreported.
Up to 2016, the referral system of domestic violence cases was maintained manually. And due to this there
were delays in attending the cases and completing the investigation. However, in early 2016, a databasenamed the “Geveshi Portal” was launched which eliminated the manual paperwork, and ensured that swift
reporting was done throughout the chain. This portal is mostly useful for reporting domestic violence cases
from the islands. The portal can be accessed through the Police Information Management System (PIMS) ofthe Maldives Police Service and is linked to the Ministry of Law and Gender and Family Protection
Authorityʼs system.
In order to properly manage the records of children as victims, the Maldives Child Protection Database
was implemented on 20 June 2010 and the use of it was started by the Maldives Police Service, the Juvenile
Justice Unit and the Ministry of Law and Gender. This database was later integrated with PIMS, where when
the data is entered into the PIMS system, all the information are automatically transferred into the MCPD,
making the process convenient for investigation officers who deal with cases relating to child abuse, juvenile
offending and domestic violence. The main aim of implementing this database is to provide a platform for all
stakeholders to work together to collect data for future use.
C. Legal Aid
Criminal Cases: The government is required to provide legal aid to defendants who cannot afford alawyer. However, there are only a few lawyers on the roster of availability, and the government provides
them only minimal compensation per case.
Victim Support: There are currently limited services for survivors of domestic violence, sexual and otherabuse. The Victim Support Unit of the Maldives Police Service, the Family Legal Clinic by Hope for Womenand SHE are among the few.
Public Outreach, Education and Legal Information: Even though Internet access is widely available, it is
not used by people to access information about laws and procedures. Legal information initiatives are needed
to reach the public.
(The Domestic Violence Act, 2012)
Family and Child Protection Department, Domestic Violence Statistics 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
3(Country meters, 2016)
4(UNICEF, 2017)12166

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D. Effective Measures to Provide Legal Information to the General Public
Awareness sessions are conducted every year by different agencies regarding laws and regulations that
relate to them. Over the past two years, the Maldives Police Service, in collaboration with relevant
stakeholders, has conducted awareness sessions throughout Maldives, reaching out to approximately 13,2215
individuals of different ages. The sessions conducted consisted of legal information on different types of cases.
Even with all the measures to ensure a smooth system, Maldives still faces many challenges such as:
Lack of cooperation between stakeholders. Due to this, the MCPD and “Geveshi Portal” are not used
to their full potential;There are no safe houses provided for vulnerable victims above the age of 18. FPA is mandated with
providing a safe house to the victim, but due to lack of resources and funding, this has not yet beenpossible. Currently, the victim remains under police protection until another family member or aperson that the victim trusts comes to collect her;Social, cultural and religious beliefs;

Lack of awareness of legal rights and options, especially among vulnerable groups;

Close-minded people mostly in the islands;

Lack of resources and funding.

II. UNDERLYING PROBLEMS A sobering reality is that cases such as domestic violence rarely reach the prosecution stage
following investigation. One of the biggest challenges for prosecution is that victims of abuse often
retract their statements after lodging complaints. This normally happens due to lack of family
support, family pressure, sensitivity to associated social stigma, economic dependency on thepredator, fear of reprisal as well as lack of confidence in the available protection services; When cases are reported to the justice system, victims are not always treated with gendersensitivity, including access to legal advice and health care; Few perpetrators of gender-based violence are convicted for their offences; Domestic violence and sexual abuse against children are significantly underreported to the justicesystem; Shortage of recourse to experienced workers to deal with emerging issues such as commercial
sexual exploitation, online exploitation etc. As a result, this leads to issues getting out of hand andnot being able to deliver justice to the victims;
 Geographical inaccessibility of needed legal support and services. Given that all the lawyers reside in
the capital Maleʼ, it poses problems for those living in the islands to access the services of legal
counsel. This raises the problem of the lack of standards for lawyers;
 Sometimes too many referrals are made, such that an individual loses interest or feels defeated.

III. RECOMMENDATIONS
The current situation indicates that there is room for change and the following recommendations can betaken into consideration in order to improve the current system.

5

Family and Child Protection Department, Public Awareness Statistics 2015, 2016.

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 To establish policing and the processes and procedures of the criminal justice system that aregender sensitive and take into account social and cultural difficulties in bringing such cases to theattention of the authorities;
 Ongoing professional development of police, investigators, prosecutors and judges and related
professionals such as hospital staff and staff in key administrative centres in the atolls;
 Ensuring that the penal code adequately addresses issues of concern to women and children; Encouraging support for adequate public and private funding for legal aid and other legal services
programmes that serve low-income and vulnerable clients, ensuring a strong and effective legal aid
delivery system, giving all Maldivians meaningful access to justice; Conducting collaborative inter-agency awareness sessions that involve the general public;
 Conducting support programmes for different targeted groups of victims (low, medium, high risk); A mandate for lawyers to provide pro bono services is needed, and a regulated system to monitor
the timeline between detention, request for a lawyer, and legal representation. Awareness raisingand follow-up training regarding rights to legal aid would benefit both the public and the police.
 Roster of Lawyers: establish a system of compulsory pro bono legal services.

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