HRCM: 400 children not attending school due to parents

The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has said that there are roughly 400 children in the Maldives who are withheld from attending school by their parents, due to religious beliefs.

This was stated in the commission’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Maldives, April – May 2015 (22nd session), which was submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) yesterday.

The review also states that there are reports of unregistered marriages, encouraged by some religious scholars claiming that registering marriages with the courts is un-Islamic and unnecessary.

HRCM noted that state institutions have acknowledged this information and raised concerns that children born to such marriages could face serious legal issues.

The commission said that women in such marriages are bound to face social and legal consequences, and that conservative beliefs that promote women as inferior to men are spreading at an alarming level.

“Many women believe that their role in society is to be submissive wives and in raising children,” reads the report.

Other human rights issues highlighted in the report include the lack of minimum wage and unemployment benefit, the increase in unemployment, and the increase in violence and murders in the country.

HRCM said that the purpose of this review is to identify and encourage the prevention of human rights abuses in UN member countries, and improve the overall human rights position of those countries. The deadline given for the Maldives to submit this review is today, 15 September.