Maldives participates at the 33rd session of the Universal Periodic Review

Maldives is participating at the 33rd session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva, Switzerland.

The foreign ministry said that Maldives will “actively participate” in the two-week session, and present constructive recommendations to the states that are being reviewed.

While the 33rd session of the UPR is to be held from 6 to 17 May, the states being reviewed at this year’s session are; Norway, Albania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Portugal, Bhutan, Dominica, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Brunei Darussalam, Costa Rica, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Qatar and Nicaragua.

While Norway and Albania were reviewed at the first meeting on Monday, Maldives recommended the Albanian government “to train law enforcement agencies to respond, investigate and manage gender-based violence cases,” while commending them “for adopting laws and strategies related to education and disability.”

The Maldives delegation also highlighted Norway’s lead in providing “development assistance” and recommended its government “to adopt measures to end all forms of racial and religious discrimination in particular Islamophobia and Xenophobia.”

The delegation is led by the Dr. Hala Hameed, the Permanent Representative of Maldives to the United Nations Office at Geneva. She is accompanied by Deputy Permanent Representative Hawla Ahmed Didi, and the First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Maldives to United Nations Office at Geneva, Aishath Shahula.

The UPR Working Group holds three two-week sessions per year and is now holding its Third Cycle review of the countries.

The Maldives is to be reviewed in April/May 2020 at the 36th session of the Universal Period Review.

The UPR involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. The United Nations Human Rights Council provides the opportunity for each state to declare actions taken to improve the human rights situations in their respective countries and to fulfill their human rights obligations.

With the objective to improve human rights situations in all countries, and also addressing violations of human rights wherever they may occur, the UPR mechanism is designed to give equal treatment to every country when their human rights situation is assessed.