The Human Right Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has extended maternity leave of their employees to six months, on the commemoration of this year's International Women’s Day.

Along with the decision to extend female employees maternity leave to six months, HRCM also established ‘flexible’ lunch hours for the commission’s expecting mothers.

The Commission has stated that the reason behind taking this initiative for their female employees is to make sure their devotion in working for the Commission remains uncompromising and to efface any obstacles that women may face to reach senior levels at the Commission.  They added that this change paves way for equality to be obtained within the workplace.

HRCM also added that a lunch break of one hour and an added hour for mothers to feed their newborns is added in the amendment included in the Commission’s employment regulations as well as the 10 day paternity leave to fathers.

While HRCM has brought this change to their staff code of conduct, 67% of the Commission's employees are female employees and 55% of its department heads are women.

While the HRCM consists of a total of five members, three are women.