Article 1:Non‐Discrimination, Article 2 Duty of the state and 3 Equality Concluding Observation: Dissemination of the 2007 Concluding Observations to all the relevant ministries, the People’s Majlis and to atoll and island governing bodies (CO_2007/3, para. 10) Concluding Observation: Definition of `discrimination against women’ in the new Constitution; sanctions for acts of discrimination against women (CO2007/3, para. 14) Concluding Observation: Clarifying and strengthening the status of the national gender machinery 1. During this reporting period, there has been change of government three times and each time the National Machinery for Women’s rights has been subjected to restructuring. 2. In 2008, Ministry of Gender was downgraded to a department level, by merging with Ministry of Health. In addition to this, the lack of human and financial resource allocations to implement gender interventions/actions and with the downsizing of the civil service brought the work of National Machinery for Women’s right to an almost standstill. 3. In the next phase of restructuring in 2012, the inadequately supported Department of Gender and Family was given the status of a Ministry with a separate budget to carry out the mandate of women’s rights issues. 4. During the next restructuring in 2013, Ministry of Health and Gender was established by merging Ministry of Gender, Family and Human Rights once again with Ministry of Health. The mandate to protect the vulnerable groups was confined to a separate division under this ministry. The reason given by the President’s Office for this action was to enhance the cost effectiveness by reducing the duplication of resources and operational costs. 5. The most recent restructuring saw the establishment of the Ministry of Law and Gender (MoLG) in 2014.1 This Ministry oversees all government functions related to families, children, women, people with special needs, and human rights. These sectors had previously been under the authority of the Ministry of Health and Gender. 6. It is apparent that the frequent change of governance structure has impacted the realization of women’s rights issues as during these phases considerable focus was not given to implement the practice of policies and actions. Furthermore, while the National Page 4 of 35