Human Rights Watch, together with several other human rights organizations have called on the Maldivian government to withdraw plans to end the decades-long moratorium on the death penalty.
A joint statement was issued by Human Rights Watch, Advocates for Human Rights, Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network, Capital Punishment Justice Project, ECPM: Together Against the Death Penalty, International Federation for Human Rights, Harm Reduction International, Maldivian Democracy Network, Parliamentarians for Global Action, and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty.
The statement calls on the Maldives government to withdraw plans to introduce a bill to end the moratorium on death penalty, and to repeal recent amendments to the Drugs Act that allow capital punishment for drug-related offences.
Human rights organizations say the proposed death penalty law would breach the Maldives' obligations under the ICCPR and run counter to UNGA resolutions urging states to restrict the use of capital punishment and uphold safeguards for those facing it.
The groups stressed that they oppose the death penalty in all cases and under all circumstances.
The Maldives has maintained a moratorium on implementing the death penalty since 1954. The rights groups warned that reinstating the death penalty would place the country at odds with regional and global trends, as 113 states have fully abolished capital punishment.
The statement stressed that when the UNGA last voted on a moratorium in December 2024, 130 countries - over two-thirds of UN member states - supported it.
The organizations said the Maldives government should withdraw the proposed death penalty bill, noting that it contradicts global efforts to end capital punishment and is inherently linked to human rights violations.
If the bill is submitted to parliament during this session, they urged lawmakers to reject it, move towards fully abolishing the death penalty, and commute all existing death sentences.
On March 23, President Dr Mohamed Muizzu said that enforcing the death penalty is necessary to ensure justice, adding that the Attorney General's Office is finalizing a bill outlining its implementation.
"This is something we must do to ensure justice, and social justice. I do not believe it is a choice that the State has to prevent the enforcement of death penalty, provided all conditions are met, in an Islamic nation. It is not something that can be stopped in a 100 percent muslim country," the President stated then.
The President said that once the bill is passed and ratified, the death penalty will be enforced for all individuals who have been sentenced and have completed the full legal process.
The death penalty is to be implemented in Maldives after all appeal stages are exhaused, and the Supreme Court upholds the sentence. At present, there are three individuals on death row.
