50th SESSION OF THE UPR WORKING GROUP
Statement Norway
on the on the human rights situation in Malawi
delivered by Ms Marita Sørheim-Rensvik, Minister,
Deputy Permanent Representative.
Check against delivery
4 November 2025
President,
Norway welcomes Malawi’s recent adoption of the Correctional Services Act, but we remain concerned about the ongoing human rights challenges.
Norway recommends that Malawi:
- Ensure access to sexual and reproductive health and rights for all.
- Strengthen protection against gender-based violence by criminalizing marital rape, enforcing laws against harmful practices, expanding shelters and legal aid, and ensuring sustained funding for services.
- Protect civic space by repealing restrictive provisions on freedom of expression and association, improving legal protection for human rights defenders, adopting a police accountability framework, and tracking and responding to attacks on journalists.
- Repeal Penal Code Sections 137A, 153, 154 and 156 that criminalize consensual same-sex relations.
- [Criminalize torture, exclude coerced confessions, ratify Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, create an independent National Preventive Mechanism, and resource the Correctional Services Act to reduce prison overcrowding].
Thank you.