HRCM proposes to make prisoners' shaving their heads and beards voluntary

Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM) has proposed to Maldives Correctional Service to amend laws and regulations to make head and beard shaving optional for prisoners.

HRCM released a paper on "policy review on haircuts of male prisoners and detainees", following the increase in cases where male prisoners had their heads shaved off, as found by the Commission's investigations.

It states that while the Prisons and Parole Act requires prisons to offer hair cutting and beard shaving services for male prisoners, these are not mandatory.

However, according to the Code of Conduct for Prisoners, male prisoners and detainees must have their hair shorter than two centimetres, while their moustache and beards must either be clean shaven or shorter than two inches.

Violations of these codes result in disciplinary actions as well, HRCM's paper reads.

The Commission stated that although violating disciplinary standards is a prison offence, the law does not specify hair cutting as part of those standards. As such, there is no legal authority to include shaving in the code of conduct for prisoners and to make it a prison offence.

Points highlighted in the Review

- Since prisoner's behaviour in prison is taken into account when applying for parole, there is a possibility of parole being denied as the code of conduct requires male prisoners and detainees to have their hair shorter than two centimetres.

- Under the Parole Act, a system should be established to give additional benefits to prisoners based on their behaviour. Since male prisoners have to keep their hair shorter than two centimetres, prisoners may be denied additional benefits as longer hair maybe considered a misconduct issue.

Based on the findings, HRCM prosed to amend the regulations based on practices followed by other countries and international standards. These include:

- Remove shaving and hair cutting from code of conduct.

- Change hair/beard and moustache cutting to be made voluntary and only to be requested by prisoners.

- Since keeping hair/beard and moustache short is associated with cleanliness, consider disciplinary history when extending opportunities for rehabilitation programmes and parole.

- No cutting of hair/beard or moustache without their consent in any situation other than to protect the public health of the prison, prevent spread of infectious diseases, or the individual health of the prisoner.

- When a prisoner's hair is being cut, it should be done in a way that does not violate their human dignity, and written records must be maintained.

- Respect any prisoner who refuses to cut their hair or remove their beard based on their religious beliefs.

Following review, HRCM has notified relevant authorities to review and amend the existing laws, rules and regulations of prisoners having to cut their hair, from a human rights perspective.