Maldives Requests UN Support for Judicial Strengthening
Thursday 03 June 2010
The Permanent Representative of the Maldives to the UN in Geneva, H.E. Ambassador Iruthisham Adam, today used an interactive dialogue at the Human Rights Council to ask the UN’s foremost expert on human rights and the judiciary to work with the Maldives to strengthen the judicial sector while maintaining a separation of powers.
Ambassador Adam welcomed the report of Ms. Gabriella Carine Knaul de Albuquerque e Silva, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, which focused on the education and training for lawyers and judges. In it, the Special Rapporteur strongly argued that “judges must be adequately educated and informed on a regular and continuing basis on new developments in international human rights law, principles, standards and case law”.
The Ambassador noted that this conclusion is particularly true in the Maldives where political, economic and legal modernisations are placing great strains on the judiciary. She underscore the importance that the Government attaches to the full separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary, but asked how to balance these key principles with the equally pressing need to modernise and improve the capacity of the judiciary? “How” asked Ambassador Adam, “in a country that has recently gone through a democratic transition, can a Government give impetus to the emergence of a new generation of highly educated and trained judges, while respecting the independence of the judiciary?”
Ambassador Adam repeated the concerns expressed recently by H.E. President Mohamed Nasheed regarding the Judicial Service Commission’s newly-established criteria for the qualification of judges: that the criteria as so low “that they prevent a proper screening of applicants, and thus would hinder the proper administration of justice in a country that faces increasingly complex court cases and legal issues, including in relation to human rights”. “This situation” continued the Ambassador “must be read against a backdrop whereby many young highly-trained judges cannot secure a place in the courts because positions are already filled”.
Ambassador Adam ended by asking the Special Rapporteur to follow-up on her mandate’s visit to the Maldives in 2007 and “to work with the Judicial Services Commission, lawyers and judges, the Government and relevant NGOs, in order to understand this complex situation and develop recommendations for the future”.
The 14th Session of the Human Rights Council runs from 31st May to 18th June 2010, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
ENDS