Child sex offenders' registry digitalized, now available online

The Child Sex Offenders Register, formulated under the Special Provisions Act to Deal with Child Sex  Offenders, has been digitalized and is now accessible to the public. 

A register of child sex offenders, containing crucial information such as their names, type of offense, and date of completion of sentence, was first compiled in 2018. Despite the register being published in full, the public faced difficulties in accessing the website. 

The registry of offenders required by the Gender Ministry to be published under Section 57 of the  Special Provisions Act to Deal with Child Sex Offenders, was published yesterday following digitalization. 

The digitized registry was launched by Gender Minister Aishath Mohamed Didi during a ceremony held at the Ministry yesterday. 

The Prosecutor General's Office (PGO), in a statement, said they provided technical assistance to the Gender Ministry in updating the list. In this regard, the PGO said judgments, once issued by the court, are automatically provided to the Ministry. 

"This registry, as it stands, has been designed by the IT staff of the Prosecutor's Office in accordance with the technical advice and guidance of the Gender Ministry. The registry allows for information on the offenders to be filtered by seven different categories. There will be various filters to search for people's information, as there are in developed countries,” PG said.

The Gender Ministry said the aim of digitizing the register is to complete the information previously manually entered without delay. And for easy access to the information in this register for the public. 

“It is very important to keep this information and this register in order for the sake of such abused children,” the Gender Ministry said.

The information can now be filtered and accessed using the identity card numbers of the people on the register.