Protection of vulnerable groups Protection of women Safe migration Xenophobia Total Percentage 3. 2 3 7 6 6 21 7 4% 9 5% 30 15% 71 36% 38 19% Process of UPR compiling this report a) Selection of thematic areas The UPR report encompasses human rights issues identified between the period of 2015 to 2019. The 14 thematic areas of this report were prioritized using a top-down approach where the recommendations of UPR and concluding observations issued by UN human rights treaty bodies were analyzed according to the significance of the issues emphasized (see Annex 4). This was further corroborated with annual investigation statistics of HRCM. Subsequent to the identification of the thematic areas, a bottom-up approach was used to assess the priority areas. The criteria adopted for bottom-up approach prioritization of human rights theme include intensity of the presumed violation, estimate number of people affected, impact on vulnerable groups, HRCM’s expert knowledge on the issue and assess whether HRCM should address a particular issue given the word limitation. A general outcome of prioritization is included in Annex 3 The focused areas were child protection, juvenile justice, migrant workers, access to justice, persons with disabilities, health, freedom of expression, education for children with disabilities, housing, environment and climate change, gender equality and violence against women and freedom of assembly. During the consultative process, HRCM identified that it is important to address the issue of religious extremism as one of the thematic areas. b) Field visits (atoll monitoring visit) A field visit was conducted in 2019 to acquire and verify implementation status of the UPR recommendations which encompasses the selected 15 thematic areas of the UPR report. A questionnaire was developed using the information from the follow-up document attached in the Annex 4 along with other in-house monitoring data. In addition, available statistics were used as a reference material in selection of locations (atolls) for field study. For the purpose of acquiring information from various sources representatives of different state institutions in the islands and atolls were considered. Concurrently other focus group discussions were held with women, parents, migrant workers in private sector, teachers, island based NGOs, youth etc. A report was compiled based on outcome of the observations from the field visits. 1 1 1 43 22%