President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has signed the Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) on Tuesday.

Following deliberations with his cabinet of ministers on Tuesday morning, the president decided to seek approval from the People’s Majlis to ratify the international treaty, RKC, lift the reservations on a second treaty and join a statutory body of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Asia and Pacific Commission on Agricultural Statistics (APCAS).

The decision for Maldives to become a party to the RKC and join the APCAS was made at Tuesday’s meeting, where Solih also decided to lift restrictions on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

RKC is the blueprint for “modern” and “efficient” customs procedures which promotes trade facilitation and adequate controls through its legal provisions that detail the application of efficient procedures that are also simple.

APCAS is a statutory body of FAO, and brings together senior statistics officials from member countries of the Asia and Pacific region who are responsible for the development of agricultural statistics in their respective countries.

Upon recommendations from his cabinet ministers, Solih also decided to lift the reservations on sections (b), (e), (g), and (h) of Clause 1 and Clause 2 of Article 16 of the CEDAW, an international legal instrument that requires countries to eliminate the discrimination against women in all sectors and promote equal rights for women.

The decisions were reached after deliberating on papers submitted by the Gender Minister Shidhatha Shareef, Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail as well as the Fisheries Minister Zaha Waheed.