***Note: Musawah and Uthema submitted an updated Joint Thematic Report on Maldives in September 2021 for the 80th CEDAW review session, available HERE.
In June 2020, Musawah and Maldivian women’s rights organisation Uthema submitted a Joint Thematic Report on Maldives to the CEDAW Committee for review. The session was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this report examines Maldives’s legal frameworks and practices that enforce de jure and de facto discrimination against women in the following areas: polygamy, matrimonial assets and unequal provisions for divorce under the Muslim family laws. The report incorporates substantive inputs by women’s rights activists and lawyers in Maldives.