Country | Maldives |
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Optional protocol | on the involvement of children in armed conflict, on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography |
Safety | |
Corporal punishment | Corporal Punishment is legal in the home, alternative care settings, day care, schools, penal institutions and as a sentence for crime. |
Overview of the child rights situation | The overall situation in the Maldives is rather poor for children's rights. Children are sentenced to death, there is a great religious intolerance and girls experience great oppression due to the patriarchal system, rape is not punished and only for special reasons abortions are allowed. There is no information on health care in the report. |
Female genital mutilation and reproductive rights | The Committee is concerned that abortion requires the consent of the spouse and is permitted only in a few cases as well as that there is no universal access to reproductive health-care services, and unmarried girls face difficulties due to the social condemnation and criminalization of out-of-wedlock pregnancy, which increasingly leads to illegal and unsafe abortions, putting the lives and health of adolescent mothers at great risk. |
Discrimination | |
Situation of children with disabilities | The Committee remains concerned about the stigmatization of children with disabilities, the absence of disaggregated data on children with disabilities, and their lack of access to health services. Therefore, the Committee urges the State party to adopt a human-rights-based approach to disability, set up a comprehensive strategy, based on disaggregated statistical data, for the inclusion of children with disabilities and ensure that all children with disabilities are included in the disability registry and remove any existing financial or other obstacles to such registration. Maldives should also strengthen its efforts to implement the inclusive education policy and ensure that inclusive education is given priority over the placement of children in specialized institutions and classes as well as strengthen its efforts to ensure that children with disabilities have access to health care, including early detection and intervention programmes. |
Education | |
Free kindergarten | Yes |
Free primary and secondary school | Yes |
Digital possibilities | While noting that most children between 14 and 18 years of age in the State party have access to the Internet and that the State party has recently started to conduct awareness-raising activities on cyberbullying and Internet safety for children and their parents, the Committee is concerned that these measures have been insufficient to ensure that children are not exposed to age-inappropriate information and pornography and to cyberbullying. Nevertheless, the Committee recommends that the State party further improve children’s access to appropriate information from a diversity of sources, especially those aimed at the promotion of the child’s social, spiritual and moral well- being and physical and mental health, and strengthen awareness programmes for children, as well as parents and teachers, on safety on the Internet and addressing, inter alia, the issues of pornography and cyberbullying. |
Health | |
Relation to other countries | |
mental health | According to a 2006 nationwide study, 66 per cent of children and adolescents in the State party suffered from issues related to mental health and, according to a 2009 survey, 22.2 per cent of students in the State party had made a plan for attempting suicide during the 12 months preceding the survey, but no specialized mental health services for children and adolescents have been established in the State party to date. To improve the situation, the Committee recommends to provide specialized mental health facilities and services for children and adolescents. |
Business sector | The Committee is concerned that, while tourism constitutes the main pillar of the State party’s economy, and child prostitution is reported to take place in the tourist environment of beaches, safari boats and guesthouses, the State party has not yet adopted measures to protect children from violations of their rights that may arise from tourism activities, especially child sex tourism. |
Situation of juvenile justice | The Committee is gravely concerned that the Juvenile Court sentenced five children to death in three separate cases (one case in 2013 and two cases in 2015). |
Specific observations | The Committee is concerned that customary and religious interpretations of the best interests of the child that are not in conformity with the Convention prevail in the State party and lead to serious violations of children’s rights. The Committee notes with serious concern that the non-reporting of child sexual abuse is considered as preserving the so-called “honour” of the child and therefore serving his or her best interests. |
Additional background | Concluding observations on the fourth and fifth periodic reports released on 14 March 2016. The Committee encourages the State party to consider withdrawing its reservations to articles 14 (1) and 21 of the Convention. More information about education on Maldives: https://www.unicef.org and https://avas.mv |
Last Updated (date) | 22nd of February, 2022 |