Under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) ratified
by the Maldives on 15 February 2006, each State Party is obliged to establish a
National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) to prevent in any territory under its
jurisdiction, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment. As
prescribed under the OPCAT, the government of the Maldives legislatively
designated the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) as the National
Preventive Mechanism (NPM) with the ratification of the Anti-Torture Act
(13/2013). Human Rights Commission officially launched the work of the
National Preventive Mechanism on 28 April 2008.
The main purpose of the NPM of the Maldives is to establish a system of
regular visits as stated in OPCAT Article 4, “to places of detention in order
to analyze treatment, conditions and administration of people that are or may be deprived of their liberty, either by virtue of an order given by a public
authority or at its instigation or with its consent or acquiescence.” The NPM
of the Maldives will make recommendations for further strengthening the
protections given to said people in accordance with international standards,
based on the information obtained during these preventive visits and its legal
and other analysis. These recommendations form the backbone of a continuous
constructive dialogue with the Government of the Maldives to assist it in
fulfilling its legal obligation to prevent any form of ill-treatment or
torture.
In the long run, the vision of NPM Maldives is to ‘prevent torture
and other ill-treatment of persons deprived of their liberty and promote a
preventive culture throughout the Maldives’.