Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has stated the social acceptance of women’s rights and gender equality is generally low in the Maldives. HRCM made the statement in its Human Rights Report 2021.
In the report, HRCM stated religion is commonly used as a weapon to obstruct the efforts to establish gender equality and promote women’s rights in the Maldives. HRCM added despite the establishment of a legal framework to promote gender equality, there have not been sufficient efforts to implement the new laws and policies.
In this regard, HRCM noted despite 833 female candidates contesting for the 33% of seats allocated for women in the Local Council Elections (LCE), there was an alarmingly low number of female candidates for other seats, indicating that many believed women could only contest for the seats which were allocated under the female quota. As such, HRCM noted women made up only 2% of candidates that contested for other seats.
HRCM further noted women also suffered more from the economic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 55% of employed women made redundant due to the pandemic, compared to 47% of men. The commission revealed the disparity was higher in the tourism sector.
Furthermore, HRCM stated 8 out of every 10 individuals from the education sector affected by the pandemic were women. HRCM added women also made up a higher percentage of affected individuals in the healthcare sector as well as technical fields and services.
HRCM also reported the rate of pressing charges in cases involving abuse of women were low. The commission also revealed there has been an increase in cyber crimes affecting women, such as non-consensual pornography, recorded sexual assault and sextortion.
In the report, HRCM revealed the divorce rates are still high in the Maldives, with most of the divorce applications submitted by women. HRCM revealed more than half of the divorces were made outside of court, while the divorces which were avoided through a court intervention were very few.
HRCM revealed it had received 16 cases relative to women’s rights in 2021.