Human rights advocacy

While inaugurating a workshop conducted by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in March 2007, Shaheed took credit for all the steps taken by the Maldives to subscribe to the core international human rights treaties, including treaties that allowed Maldivians to petition the UN treaty bodies. He also claimed credit for the establishment of the Maldives Human Rights Commission by the Paris Principles.^[21] Shaheed had come under strident criticism for his advocacy of international human rights norms, such as extending standing invitations to United Nations Human Rights special mandates to visit Maldives and hosting of a UN Human Rights Advisor in Maldives. Shaheed's advocacy of an open society and strong anti-corruption measures were vehemently opposed by the President's brother, Abdulla Yameen and his supporters who mounted a series of motions of censure against Shaheed in parliament July–August 2007.^[22][23]

Resignation

On August 21, 2007, Shaheed resigned as Foreign Minister ahead of a second due motion of no-confidence against him tabled in the Majlis, which followed criticism of the Majlis by Shaheed, who said that it had failed the people.^[24][25] Shaheed said that "a conservative guard within the parliament and cabinet" was resisting reform.^[25]

His resignation followed his open criticism of the parliament for having failed to protect the people's fundamental rights and for being a rubber stamp to sustain the 30-year-old rule of President Gayoom. In his resignation statement, he called on the President to step down voluntarily and expressed frustration over the slow pace of the reform program.^[26] Writing in 2012, well-known international human rights activist and Deputy Chairman of the UK Conservative Party's Human Rights Commission, Benedict Rogers had described Shaheed as "the lead reformer" in the Maldives.^[27]

Re-appointment

After Gayoom was defeated in the October 2008 presidential election, his successor, Mohamed Nasheed, reappointed Shaheed as Foreign Minister in November 2008. His second stint as Foreign Minister was no less controversial than the first, coming under fire from the parliament and radical Islamist parties for recognition of Kosovo as an independent State,^[28] the development of cooperation with Israel^[29] and the participation in the US programme to close down Guantanamo Bay detention facility by agreeing to relocate persons released from Gitmo.^[30] An advocate of close security ties with India, he was also widely criticized by pro-Pakistani Islamist elements.^[31] As Foreign Minister, Shaheed had also agreed to a moratorium on corporal punishment, including flogging, and to protect LGBT community in Maldives against discrimination, during the universal periodic review of Maldives held in Geneva on 3 November 2010.^[32] Amnesty International's Annual Report in 2011 described Shaheed as the "leading human rights defender" in the Maldives.^[33]

International career

In May 2010, Maldives was elected to the UN Human Rights Council, securing the highest number of votes ever gained by a country.^[34] Earlier, from 1997 to 1998, Shaheed had served as a member of the Group of Eminent Persons mandated by the leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, comprising Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka,^[12] while from 2009 to 2010 he served on the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group mandated to oversee the protection of democratic values and human rights in the 54 member association of former British colonies.^[35]

On June 17, 2011, Shaheed was appointed as special rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in Iran by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations. However, for the first time since 2011, the Maldives, with Abdulla Yameen as president, refused to back Shaheed's re-appointment in 2014 as UN envoy, despite public appeals from Iranian civil society.^[36] From 2010 to 2012, Shaheed had been the lead investigator of an alleged 800 million dollar fraud by current President Yameen,^[37] filing court cases in Singapore High Court through the UK fraud investigator Grant Thornton and Singapore solicitors Rajah and Tan.^[38] In September 2013, he stirred considerable animosity from President Yameen when he called for international intervention to facilitate presidential elections^[39] when the first round was nullified by the Supreme Court of Maldives.^[40] On 23 March 2016, the Human Rights Council voted to extend Shaheed's UN mandate to investigate human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic of Iran for a 6th year, again without the support of his country, the Maldives.^[41] The Maldives' failure to support Shaheed this time was explained by a leading government MP as based on his opposition to the re-introduction of the death penalty in the Maldives after a 63-year-old moratorium.^[42][43]

Living in self-imposed exile since the coup d'état of February 2012, Shaheed has been a vociferous campaigner for the restoration of democracy and for the advancement of human rights in Maldives.^[44] He has also been active on the international stage advocating human rights protection in Islamic societies, supporting freedom of religion and the abolition of the death penalty.^[45] The official newspaper of the Islamist party in Maldives declared in February that Shaheed was the foremost apostate in Maldives.^[46][47] In April 2013, Shaheed was a Guest of Honour at the launch of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office's 2012 Human Rights and Democracy Report.^[48]

In September 2012, Shaheed joined the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex as a visiting professor.^[49] He teaches human rights, Islam and diplomacy.^[29][50] He is also a Visiting Professor at the City University of New York.^[51]

In August 2015, The Guardian reported Iran uses fabricated WikiLeaks cable to smear UN rights rapporteur.^[52][53] It said "Iranian articles claimed that the Saudi embassy in Kuwait had paid the UN envoy $1m to take an anti-Iran position.

Awards and honors

On 5 May 2009, the Washington-based think-tank Centre for the Study of Islam and Democracy conferred their annual Muslim Democrat of the Year Award to Shaheed. The citation for the award read that it was being given to Shaheed in recognition of his "role in building democracy and preserving it in the face of hardship, for promoting tolerance and harmony, and for opening a window into a century of reason, freedom, human rights and democracy in the Maldives and in South Asia."^[54]

On 4 November 2010, the President of Albania awarded him the Presidential Medal of Gratitude for his contribution to promoting peace in the Balkans.^[55]

On 3 November 2015, Shaheed, along with then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was a recipient of the Global Leadership Awards for advancing human rights.^[56] As the recipient of the prestigious Leo Nevas Human Rights Award, Shaheed's citation reads:

For a lifetime of achievement effectively advancing human rights in his own country and abroad, through citizen action, governmental support for that action, and through the United Nations. For his courage and conviction and his steadfast support for human rights for all.^[57]