Maldives requests international community to dispatch delegation of eminent jurists

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

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Abdul Latheef

Government has requested International Community, including United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to urgently dispatch a team of senior international jurists to the Maldives to help facilitate a resolution to the ongoing judicial crisis facing the country.

Foreign Minister also stated that the request is a follow-up to suggestions made late last week during phone calls between the President and senior UN and Commonwealth officials. According to Foreign Minister, team of eminent jurists would be asked to help resolve the immediate issues surrounding the detention of Justice Abdulla Mohamed, the Chief Judge of the Criminal Court, and also the longer-term problems facing the Maldives’ judiciary and the failure of judicial accountability mechanisms under the Constitution. The team would also help facilitate a resolution both to the immediate impasse and to the deeper structural problems facing the judiciary – namely that the independent judicial oversight mechanism foreseen under the Constitution has failed and must be urgently reformed or replaced.

According to a Press Release issued by Foreign Ministry, Judicial Service Commission has failed to uphold the Section 145 of the Maldivian Constitution. JSC is empowered to take disciplinary action, including dismissal proceedings, against judges for incompetence or gross misconduct. However, Government sources points out that since its establishment, the JSC has been unable to fulfill this constitutional mandate.

A separate letter sent by the Foreign Minister to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Foreign Minister stated that the current constitutional crisis in the Maldives represents a systemic failure of the judicial checks and balances foreseen in the Constitution. This system-failure, Foreign Minister wrote to High Commissioner, led directly to the President’s decision, as the ultimate guarantor of the Constitution and of rule of law in the Maldives, to detain Justice Abdulla Mohamed.

Foreign Minister also noted that the Independent Institutions Committee of the People’s Majlis has already formed a sub-committee to investigate the failings of the JSC. The sub-committee is in the process of compiling a report which, according to the Chair of the Independent Institutions Committee, Mohamed Nasheed MP (Independent), may include recommendations for reform of the JSC such a changes to its composition and the provision of a stronger oversight mandate. Hon. Nasheed MP also suggested that, as part of the necessary reforms, it may be necessary to invite foreign Muslim judges to sit on Maldives court benches for an interim period – a proposal which the Government has advocated previously.

According to the Minister, the proposed team of eminent international jurists would be able to offer an important substantive contribution to this process of judicial reform.

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