President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih
The President’s Office
Boduthakurufaanu Magu
Malé 20113
Republic of Maldives
The Minister of Foreign Affairs
Mr. Abdulla Shahid
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Boduthakurufaanu Magu
Male’ 20125
Republic of Maldives
7 April 2021
Dear President Solih,
We, the undersigned organisations, write to express concerns over the recent comments your excellency made on 10 March 2021, regarding the investigation against Maldivian Democracy Network, after the human rights organisation was arbitrarily de-registered in the Maldives on 19 December 2019.
You reiterated that your Government is investigating the founders of the Maldivian Democracy Network and that its senior officials will be apprehended upon their return to Maldives. These actions are outside Article 15 of the Associations Act, which stipulates that the NGO’s Executive Committee, not the founders, must be liable for all actions concerning the organisation. We must remind you that high-level State officials, including the current Commissioner of Police Mohamed Hameed and Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem were members of MDN’s Executive Committee when the 2016 report was published. We are aware that none of the Office Bearers of the organisation have left the country. These individuals make it apparent that the current government does not have the capacity to investigate MDN without their recusal.
As you may know, civil proceedings were initiated against your Government on 9 July 2020, challenging the decision of the Registrar of Associations to repeal MDN’s registration, approved by the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Community Empowerment. Your comments to the media directly impact the ongoing case at the Civil Court of the Maldives and puts the organisation and the individuals at further risk of persecution and vigilante violence. We reiterate that the administrative action of de-registering the NGO in December 2019 was taken before the completion of the criminal process against MDN, compromising any semblance of procedural propriety.
The Government of Maldives has failed to abide by procedural propriety in the unfair administrative action taken by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, without giving MDN the right of reply, or ability to pursue legal recourse. During the smear campaign against MDN in late 2019, the Maldivian authorities resoundingly failed to provide due protection to MDN staff and its members who received death threats, while violent groups openly issued numerous incitements to violence against them with impunity.
Your Government has systematically failed to act on recommendations from the international community to conduct an open enquiry into the unfair actions taken against MDN. Our request is for the Government of Maldives to explain the legal basis behind the actions against MDN. Your vague comments about an ongoing investigation against the organization have a ripple effect of putting individuals at further risk, and appear as deliberate attempts to influence the ongoing litigation to seek redress over your Government’s actions against the organisation. We call on you to stop intervening in the judicial process that the victims of your administration’s actions have initiated and allow the judicial process to reach an independent and fair conclusion.
- ALTSEAN-Burma
- Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
- Asian Resource Foundation (ARF), Thailand
- Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), Kashmir
- AwazCDS-Pakistan
- BALAOD Mindanaw, Philippines
- Bytes For All, Pakistan
- CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
- Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI)
- Freedom House
- International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
- Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society
- Karapatan Alliance Philippines
- Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law
- League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran (LDDHI)
- Maldivian Democracy Network – Geneva
- Mandkhaitsetsen Urantulkhuur, Centre for Human Rights and Development, Mongolia
- Manushya Foundation, Thailand
- Metro Center For Journalists Rights & Advocacy, Iraqi Kurdistan Region
- National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), Pakistan
- OPEN ASIA / Armanshahr Foundation
- Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), Philippines
- Public Association Dignity (Kazakhstan)
- SUARAM, Malaysia
- Sudanese Development Initiative (SUDIA), Sudan
- The Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM), Pakistan
- Think Centre, Singapore
- Universal Rights Group, Geneva
- Vietnam Committee on Human Rights
- Vietnamese Women for Human Rights
**
For a PDF version of this open letter, please click here.
For further information, please contact:
- South Asia Programme Manager, FORUM-ASIA, sasia@forum-asia.org
For media inquiries, please contact:
- Melissa Ananthraj, Communication and Media Programme Manager, communication@forum-asia.org
This post was originally published on FORUM-ASIA.