Article 21: Freedom of Assembly 148. Article 32 of the Constitution states the right to peaceful assembly is guaranteed for everyone and without any prior permission. Article 16 of the Constitution, guarantees to all persons, subject on to reasonable limits prescribed by a law enacted by the Parliament should not be contrary to fundamental rights and freedoms in the Constitution and not contrary to any tenets of Islam. Apart from the Constitution, right to assembly is governed by a domestic regulation, namely “Regulation concerning Assembly” which was enforced on April 15th, 2006. Upon ratification of the present Constitution in 2008, the regulation came under the “General Regulations Act”, ratified in 2008. Hindrances to Peaceful Assembly 150. Furthermore, at the fifteenth Human Rights Council a Resolution on Right to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association was adopted which decided to create the first‐ever Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association. This resolution was jointly introduced by Maldives. However domestic laws and regulations have not been brought in line with this resolution. 151. HRCM notes that there are inconsistent practices by MPS in dispersing the protests. Following lists some of the recent incidents which demonstrate unfair dispersal of demonstrations. a) A series of protests which were held for 1 week from April 30, 2011, blaming the government for the worsening economic plight, and because the commodity prices had increased almost to double. Protesters were dispersed by MPS using force and many were reportedly injured and arrested though later released. A total of 8 protests were carried on 7 consecutive days. The first demonstration of this series which lasted for almost 13 hours was dispersed by riot geared police Chapter: Article 21: Freedom of Assembly 149. The “Regulation concerning Assembly” contradicts the article on assembly in the Constitution, as regulation requires at least three persons representing the organizers of public assemblies to submit a written form fourteen days prior to every gathering to the MPS, while the Constitution guarantees peaceful assembly without any prior notice. On April 25, 2012 the High Court invalidated Article 4, 6, 7, 8(c), 13 and a part of Article 3 citing contradiction with the Constitution. The aforementioned articles required that the person organizing the demonstration be identified and informed in advance, the provision for MPS to deny permission to conduct demonstrations, imposing conditions on the freedom of assembly, setting time limits for the duration of demonstrations, and the prerequisite of giving MPS prior notice of the demonstrations. 57