As citizens of the Maldives prepare to cast their votes in presidential elections scheduled for 9 September 2023, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) and CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation call upon all candidates and political parties to pledge their commitment to upholding and safeguarding civic freedoms as an integral part [ Read more ]

In response to the Maldives parliament opening a debate regarding an amendment to the country’s General Elections Act, FORUM-ASIA says: FORUM-ASIA is alarmed by the proposed amendment to Maldives’ General Elections Act which would restrict journalists from freely monitoring elections. Only journalists from media organizations registered with and approved by the government would be permitted to work [ Read more ]

Civic space is under attack in South Asia. Across the region, increasingly authoritarian governments are relying on a wide range of repressive laws and other tactics to silence criticism, a trend that only intensified in 2021. While the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan is the starkest example of this, almost all other countries saw alarming restrictions [ Read more ]

Press Release 12 May 2021 Maldives: Regarding the 6 May 2021 terrorist attack on the Speaker of Parliament, former President Mohamed Nasheed On Thursday, 6 May 2021 an IED aimed at the Speaker of Parliament and former president of Maldives Mohamed Nasheed, exploded in Male’, injuring Nasheed and five other people. After 16 hours of surgery [ Read more ]

Your Excellency, Honourable Speaker of The People’s Majlis, President Mohamed Nasheed. We, the Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN) and the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) write to call for action to ensure justice for Yameen Rasheed. Today marks four years since Maldivian human rights defender and blogger Yameen Rasheed was brutally stabbed to [ Read more ]

(Bangkok/Kathmandu, 23 April 2021) – The Maldivian authorities must bring the killers of blogger and human rights defender Yameen Rasheed, found dead in his home four years ago today, to justice. ‘Yameen Rasheed was 29 years old when he was murdered four years ago today. Despite election pledges by the current government to bring his [ Read more ]

46th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council Item 2: Adoption of the Universal Periodic Review Outcomes of Maldives Oral Statement Delivered by Ahmed Adam On behalf of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) Tuesday, 16 March 2021      Madam President, FORUM-ASIA welcomes the recent positive steps by the [ Read more ]

Impunity is the absence of accountability and the rule of law. Impunity is defined in an international human rights instruments as the ‘impossibility, de jure or de facto, of bringing perpetrators of violations to account’, in criminal, civil, administrative or disciplinary proceedings, because such perpetrators are not made subject to inquiries that will allow them [ Read more ]

19 December 2020 Today marks one year since the Government of the Maldives arbitrarily shut down the longest serving human rights group in the country, the Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN) and arbitrarily confiscated all of its funds. Since then, the Government has not reversed any of its unconstitutional actions related to the dissolution of MDN. [ Read more ]

  The COVID-19 pandemic is the defining global health crisis of our time considered to be the biggest public health crisis in recent history and has presented a tremendous challenge to our societies. Globally, the pandemic has caused immense health and socio-economic problems. More than 59 million people have tested positive for the virus with [ Read more ]