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’.