President ratifies Bill on Peaceful Assembly

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has ratified the Freedom of Peaceful Assembly Bill.

The bill, passed at the 38th sitting of the parliament on 25 December, has been published on the Government Gazette following ratification.

The law describes the policies on exercising the right to peaceful assembly stipulated in article 32 of the constitution.

As article 32 of the constitution states that ‘everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly without prior permission of the State’, the purpose of the bill is to establish the policies on freedom of assembly in the Maldives in line with article 20 (1) of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

Also, as article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that the right to freedom of assembly can be restricted under a law in order to protect certain interests, the bill refers to article 16 (a) of the constitution and defines circumstances in which this right can be restricted.

Meanwhile, the president has returned the Bill on the Privileges and Powers of the Parliament and the Bill on Political Parties to the parliament for reconsideration.