UN Judicial Envoy Due To Arrive In Male’

By Minivan News

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Leandro Despouy, was due to arrive in Male’ on Sunday to study the country’s legal system.

Despouy will stay in the Maldives until March 1 in order to “conduct a first hand investigation” into the judiciary.

Despouy will assess the level of public access to the justice system, fair trial guarantees, independence of judges, and the level of professional training to lawyers and prosecutors.

The senior UN diplomat is due to recommend ways of making the judiciary independent and effective, “principles that are not enshrined in the present constitution,” the UN said on Wednesday.

Despouy’s visit follows similar visits by Professor Paul Robinson in 2004 and Sir Ivan Lawrence in 2005. Both Robinson and Lawrence severely criticized the judiciary for being both partial and incompetent.

Some critics of the government suggest Despouy’s visit is an attempt by the Gayoom regime to further delay the implementation of judicial reforms that Robinson helped draft.

In President Gayoom’s ‘roadmap for democratic reform’, published in March 2006, the government promised to table a raft of new reform bills before the People’s Majlis by August 31 2006.

According to the roadmap, a bill on the new penal code; a bill on new sentencing regulations; a bill on the new criminal procedures code; a bill on evidence; a bill on the National Security Service; a Police bill; a bill on detention procedures; and a bill on parole were all due to be placed before parliament by August 31.

Inexplicably, the government failed to meet its own deadline and, so far, has failed to enact any significant reforms to the judiciary either through the People’s Majlis - in which government MPs hold a large majority - or through presidential decree.

“How many reports do we need until the Government of Maldives actually makes the changes?”, questioned democracy activist Sara Mahir, in an open letter to the Dhivehi Observer newspaper on Friday.

“I sincerely hope that this time, the recommendations will be taken into account, and will not end up on a dusty shelf like the previous ones,” she added.

Despouy was appointed Special Rapporteur in September 2003. He has extensive experience in human rights and international humanitarian law and has held a number of high-level positions in the United Nations and the Government of Argentina.

During his visit, Despouy is scheduled to meet with the President Gayoom, a number of government ministers including the Attorney General, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, international organizations and non-governmental organizations.

Despouy is also due to travel to Addu to meet judges, prosecutors and civil society representatives from the atoll.