According to the Maldives Police Services [MPS], information on the right to a lawyer and right to access, is communicated by the Maldives Police Service upon each arrest. Lead and implementing agencies do not maintain data on the percentage of persons that were guaranteed ‘access to a lawyer within the first hour of arrest’. According to the stakeholders, challenges due to the country’s geography and the limitation of services outside of the greater Male’ region, makes this commitment ‘an impossibility’. Rights institutions and civil society noted that there were instances in which the State had refused or prevented access to a lawyer for an accused or detained person.