286. The country had its first ever female President who held office from 2015 to March 2018. Moreover, both the National Assembly and the Rodrigues Regional Assembly is presided by a woman. We also have a lady who is a Vice Prime Minister since November 2017. 47 % of the Puisne Judges are women and Mauritius has the highest percentage of female Permanent Secretaries in Africa. Among legislators, senior officials and managers in the public sector, 40% are women. 287. Government Programme 2015-2019 made provision for electoral reform “our electoral system will be reformed to introduce a dose of proportional representation in the National Assembly and guarantee better women representation”. Accordingly, the Constitutional (Electoral Reform) (Amendment) Bill was presented to the National Assembly on 4 December 2018. The object of the Bill is, inter-alia, precisely to seek better gender representation in the National Assembly by providing that – (i) every party or party alliance shall present not more than two thirds of constituency candidates of the same sex; and (ii) every proportional representation list (PR list) submitted by a party or party alliance shall comprise not more than two thirds of persons of the same sex. 288. The bill has already been debated in parliament. At the end of the second reading on 11 December 2018, the Honourable Prime Minister moved that the Bill be taken at a later sitting. 289. A Parliamentary Gender Caucus (PGC) was set up in March 2017. The PGC provides a platform for members of the National Assembly from all political parties to discuss issues and policies relating to women in the society and to come up with concrete solutions. It helps the promotion of women’s descriptive and substantive representation. Such a Caucus also serves to ensure gender equality issues are mainstreamed into legislative and policy processes and within parliamentary processes, as well as to facilitate dialogue within and across parties. CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES 290. The various facilities and measures provided by the State are highlighted at Paragraph 115, 127 to 132. 117

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