Democracy and Political Governance 85. Mauritius has signed major conventions on humanitarian laws and standards and is developing domestic laws. 86. The CRM learnt that, in some instances, the government would not ratify a convention before it has developed a domestic law on the substance of the convention. This is what happened with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (see the comments in the table above). Another illustration is the AU Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption that Mauritius signed on 6 July 2004, but has not yet ratified. In this particular case, the CRM learned that Mauritius would only ratify the convention when it has amended the domestic law on private corruption, funding political parties and confiscating instruments of corruption. Since developing laws is a time-consuming process, it is possible that Mauritius will not pass laws to give effect to specific conventions quickly enough. This means that there are gaps in implementing conventions, because Mauritius has not ratified conventions that it has signed. 87. 88. 80 Chapter 3 Mauritius has made the commendable move to abolish the death penalty through the Death Penalty Act. However, the constitution does not reflect this. The supreme law of the land should entrench this important right to prevent any future annulment of the act. The CRM also observed that there are delays in submitting reports to the UN and AU oversight bodies on specific conventions and charters in several cases. This means that Mauritius submits several outstanding reports in one combined report. The untimely submission of reports limits the ability of the oversight mechanisms to recommend current norms and standards to protect and promote human rights in time. 89. The Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families is important because of the large number of migrant workers in Mauritius. The country should sign and ratify it to ensure that it protects this category of persons fully. Mauritius has taken important steps to develop an enabling regulatory and oversight framework for migrant workers in the country. It should also consolidate these measures by applying the human rights standards contained in the convention. 90. Mauritius has ratified the Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, but has not domesticated these rights in the constitution or any other law. It is important that Mauritius guarantees these rights, which Mauritians are already enjoying, through enabling laws and recognises them as fundamental legal and human rights. Chapter 3 Democracy and Political Governance iii. Recommendations 91. The African Peer Review (APR) Panel recommends that the government: • • • • 3.3 Signs and ratifies outstanding conventions and domesticates them as quickly as possible. [Government and MoFARIIT] Submits progress reports to international oversight bodies on the respective treaties in time and adheres to set timelines, and that civil society monitors the reports to ensure that they reflect the realities of the country. [MoFARIIT and civil society] Guarantees economic, social and cultural rights through the constitution and other enabling laws. [Government, National Economic and Social Council (NESC) and NHRC] Ratifies the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families as soon as possible. [Government] Assessment of performance on African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) objectives Objective 1: Reduce intrastate and interstate conflicts i. Summary of the CSAR Intrastate conflicts 92. The CSAR notes that Mauritius has a number of ethnic and religious groups. It cites the 1972 population census, according to which 51.5 per cent of the Mauritian people were Hindu, 16.6 per cent Muslim, and 2.7 per cent Sino-Mauritian, with 29.2 per cent falling into what Mauritius calls the ‘general population’ (people of African, European or mixed descent). It says that the island of Rodrigues had a population of approximately 37,000 who were predominately Afro-Mauritians and fell into the general population category of the constitution. A constitutional amendment in 1982 barred the recording of ethnicity during census counts. 93. The CSAR notes that the ethnic and religious diversity of Mauritius presents a challenge for the country. It calls for special attention in managing relations between the different components of the population. The country has experienced occasional periods of internal conflict and tension in previous years. For example, there 81