29.Gender sensitization programme for the judiciary has been planned, and will be implemented during the course of 2018. The ADB funded Gender Sensitisation programme includes training and sensitization on basic gender concepts, women’s protection and gender equality legislation recently introduced in the Maldives.

The Committee recommends that the State party:

(a) As a matter of urgency, decriminalize and abolish the imposition of flogging as a sentence for consensual sexual relations outside marriage, as recommended by the Committee in its previous concluding observations ( CEDAW/C/MDV/CO/3 , para. 34);

30.The Constitution guarantees a universally accepted set of rights to all persons, in a manner that is not contrary to any tenet of Islam, subject to enactment by the Peoples Majlis. Article 10 of the Constitution of the Maldives, explicitly stipulates, that the religion of the State of the Maldives is Islam. Furthermore, Islam shall be the one of the basis of all the laws of the Maldives, and there no law contrary to any tenet of Islam can be enacted in the Maldives.

31.However, mindful of the Committee’s recommendations, various safeguards have been put in place such as the Special Procedures Act on Sexual Abuse (12/ 2009) stipulates that no child under the age of 13 years of age can give consent, and that any child between the ages of 13 – 18 years has an excusable defence within any court of law, unless they explicitly express that they had willingly given consent.