UN Rapporteur on torture to visit Maldives

United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, is to carry out an official visit to Maldives this month.

While Melzer is to arrive on the eight-day visit on November 17, this will be his first trip to the country and is on the invitation of the government.

The visit follows the government’s “commitment to undertake wide-ranging, systemic reforms of the country’s institutions in response to past acts of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, and to make prevention a top priority.”

The UN Rapporteur is to assess “developments in the prohibition of such practices and identify the challenges that remain.”

For the assessment, he will visit places where people are institutionalized or otherwise deprived of their liberty in contexts such as criminal justice, immigration, health and social care, as well as meet with government officials, members of parliament and of the judiciary, representatives of civil society and national human rights mechanisms, lawyers, academics, activists, and victims and their families.

Regarding the trip, Melzer said that he looks forward “to an open and constructive dialogue with the authorities and other key groups with the goal of strengthening the implementation of international human rights standards as part of the country's prison reform initiative.”

Melzer will talk to the media regarding his trip, before departing the country on November 24.

The Rapporteur’s final report will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in March 2021