Maldives should repeal new regulation on death penalty: UN

The UN has voiced deep concern over a new regulation in the Maldives that effectively overturns a 60-year moratorium on the use of capital punishment in the country and allows for children as young as seven to be sentenced to death for certain crimes.
"We urge the government to retain its moratorium on the use of the death penalty in all circumstances, particularly in cases that involve juvenile offenders and to work towards abolishing the practice altogether," spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Ravina Shamdasani said.
"We equally encourage the government to repeal the new regulations and other provisions that provide for the death penalty," she said.

The new regulation, adopted on April 27, provides for the use of the death penalty for the offence of intentional murder, including when committed by individuals under the age of 18.
The age of criminal responsibility in the Maldives is 10, but for 'hadd' offences - that include theft, fornication, adultery and consumption of alcohol - children as young as seven years old can be held responsible.
Shamdasani noted that the new regulation means that children as young as seven can now be sentenced to death.

"According to the new regulation, minors convicted of intentional murder shall be executed once they turn 18. Similar provisions in the recently ratified Penal Code, allowing for the application of the death penalty for crimes committed when below the age of 18, are also deeply regrettable," she said.

Under international law, those who are charged and convicted for offences they have committed while they were under 18 years of age should not be sentenced to death or life imprisonment without possibility of release, the spokesperson added.
"We urge the government to retain its moratorium on the use of the death penalty in all circumstances, particularly in cases that involve juvenile offenders and to work towards abolishing the practice altogether," she said.
International human rights treaties, particularly the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Maldives has ratified, impose an absolute ban on the death sentence against persons below the age of 18 at the time when the offence was committed.