Amnesty International would like to submit information concerning violence against women, specifically the criminalization of fornication and the corresponding sentence of flogging. Amnesty International understands that flogging in the Maldives is prescribed under a series of regulations issued by the Ministry of Justice over the years instructing the courts on the criminal procedures and the penalties. These regulations, which are based on an interpretation of Shari’a, criminalize behaviour including fornication [consensual sexual relations outside marriage] and consensual same sex sexual relations.
