With regard to the combined second through fourth periodic report of Mauritius, the Committee noted with appreciation that the State party provided health care services and education up to the tertiary level free of charge and welcomed the ratification by the State party of: the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (2008); the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict (2009); the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2010); ILO Convention No. 182 (1999) on the worst forms of child labour (2000); and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (2005).
The Committee was deeply concerned about the alarmingly high number of injecting drug users in the State party. It was further concerned at reports that the National Drug Control Masterplan of 2008-2012 was never officially endorsed and was not being used by the various stakeholders concerned. The Committee was concerned about the sharp increase in cases of HIV/AIDS, particularly concerning intravenous drug users, sex workers and prison inmates. The Committee had a number of concerns about the persistent domestic violence against women in Mauritius, the persistent problem with cases of child abuse and neglect, cases of sexual exploitation of children, including reports that some schoolgirls voluntarily worked in conjunction with prostitution rings, while others were forced into prostitution, and the slow progress in education, particularly among children in some disadvantaged areas.
The Committee recommended that the State party undertake a comprehensive approach to combat its serious drug problem, including the implementation in full of the recommendations made by the World Health Organization in 2009 designed to improve availability, accessibility and quality of harm reduction services – in particular needle and syringe exchange and opioid substitution therapy with methadone. The Committee also recommended that the State party take the necessary measures to combat drug trafficking and related corruption. At the same time, the Committee recommended that these measures fully comply with the international human rights standards, including in relation to the abolition of the death penalty. It recommended that the State party combat violence against women by making domestic violence a specific criminal offence, ensuring victims’ access to justice by encouraging the reporting of crimes and ensuring that perpetrators are prosecuted and punished, and ensuring that marital rape constituted a criminal offence. It further recommended that the State party raise public awareness, through the media and education programmes, on violence against women. The Committee urged Mauritius to make sure that it took all the necessary measures, including of a legal nature, to combat sexual exploitation of children including ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, and amending its laws to be fully compliant with this Protocol.
Source: http://www.unog.ch
