International community has no human rights concerns regarding Maldives: Dhunya

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dhunya Maumoon has said that the international community has “absolutely no concerns” regarding the human rights situation of the Maldives.

Speaking at a press conference held on the occasion of the International Human Rights Day this afternoon at the Foreign Ministry, Dhunya said that even though some political parties say that the Maldives does not respect human rights, the international community does not accept these claims.

“Some people keep on spreading word that this government does not respect human rights, that our work is not in that direction, and that the international community does not accept that we respect human rights. The truth is quite the opposite,” said Dhunya.

She also said that people talk in the pretense of gaining unfulfilled rights and try to manipulate and change the true meaning human rights.

“People talk about rights for political gain. Even up until the election of 2008, it was perceived that human rights were the rights of detainees. What I want to say is that those are not the only human rights. When we talk about human rights, we also have to focus on the rights of the people in our most under-developed islands,” said Dhunya.

She said the Maldives holds the Vice Chairmanship of the Human Rights Council in Geneva and that this represents the acceptance of the country’s efforts in relation to human rights by the international community.

Dhunya said that the work done by Maldives in protecting human rights is acknowledged by other countries and that, a significant amount of work was done in this regard by the government of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

“Maumoon did a lot of work to promote human rights. After the reform agenda introduced in 2004, work was done from all angles to introduce a modern democracy,” said Dhunya, the daughter of Ex-president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.