916 cases reported to HRCM last year, most involve inmates

The Human Rights Commission of Maldives (HRCM) received reports of 916 cases involving possible rights violations last year, according to the commission’s 2025 annual report.

The 2025 report shows that of the 916 cases last year, 797 cases were reported by members of the general public, while investigations into the remaining 119 cases were initiated by the commission itself.

The commission decided to initiate investigations into 473 of these cases, but declined the other 460 cases.

Of the cases investigated by the HRCM, the highest number of cases involved possible violation of rights of prison inmates and suspects held in remand jails. The highest percentage of these involved complaints regarding lack of access of proper healthcare for inmates and suspects in remand. The commission investigated 148 such cases last year.

HRCM completed investigations into 632 cases last year. This included 518 cases completed under the Human Rights Commission Act and 114 completed under the Anti-Torture Act.

Some of these investigations date as far back as 2015. As such, the commission completed investigations into a case each that dated back to 2015 and 2016, two cases that dated back to 2019, three cases that dated back to 2020, 20 cases that dated back to 2021, 68 cases that dated back to 2022, 84 cases that dated back to 2023, and 201 cases that dated back to 2024.