A/HRC/46/26/Add.1 Service officers and inmates in Maafushi prison. The Correctional Service announced that it had taken undisclosed action against an unspecified number of officers who had been involved in the confrontation. The Human Rights Commission and the National Integrity Commission also undertook their own investigations into the two incidents, which remained pending as at December 2019. 38. While it is difficult to make a generalized statement in that regard, in some of the prisons and other places of detention visited, the Special Rapporteur heard several consistent accounts of physical and psychological abuse inflicted on inmates as a disciplinary sanction for misbehaviour. V. Impunity: ineffective follow-up to and investigation of claims of torture and ill-treatment 39. The Special Rapporteur regrets to report that, to date, the work of the Human Rights Commission, the National Integrity Commission, the Judicial Services Commission, the National Preventive Mechanism and the Commission on Investigation of Murders and Enforced Disappearances does not appear to have ensured an effective system of oversight and accountability. Despite reports that, since the entry into force of the Anti-Torture Act in 2013, several hundred complaints of torture and other forms of ill-treatment have been submitted to those bodies, no official has ever been held accountable, nor has any victim received redress, if only through official acknowledgement on the part of the Government. Reportedly, allegations submitted to the Prosecutor General are routinely dismissed for lack of sufficient evidence, thus suggesting either serious systemic shortcomings in investigative mechanisms or a lack of political will to properly investigate the allegations and/or to hold suspected officials accountable. 40. Whatever may be the cause for what appears to be a systematic failure to investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment and to prosecute proven instances, it results in almost complete impunity for serious official misconduct. It also results in a concomitant profound erosion of public confidence in the integrity and reliability of the police and the judiciary to protect the rights of citizens. 41. In that regard, the Special Rapporteur underlines the State’s obligation under national and international law to investigate any crime involving torture or ill-treatment, to prosecute any perpetrator, and to impose penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, in accordance with articles 7 and 12 of the Convention against Torture. VI. Corporal punishment and death penalty 42. The penal law of Maldives permits amputation, stoning, flogging and other forms of corporal punishment imposed for hudud offences (robbery, fornication, homosexual acts, alcohol consumption and apostasy) and qisas (retaliation in kind) offences. In the case of minors, the recently amended Juvenile Justice Act (2020) replaces the 2014 Supreme Court guideline, which delayed the execution of a flogging sentence until the perpetrator reached the age of 18. For certain offences, criminal law still permits the death penalty. In the Special Rapporteur’s view, corporal punishment and the death penalty are irreconcilable with the universal prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 43. In 2019, no hudud penalties were enforced. However, since January 2019, five individuals have been sentenced to flogging, including two boys under the age of 18. 44. The Special Rapporteur’s concerns with regard to the irreversibility of capital punishment are further reinforced by significant shortcomings in the investigative and judicial processes, which often lack the capacity to objectively establish the facts, identify causal chains and determine legal responsibilities with sufficient reliability, as required by the fundamental principles of justice and the rule of law. He welcomes unreservedly the Government’s continued commitment to the moratorium on the death penalty, which has been observed since 1953. 7