constitutionalism, human rights, good governance and the rule of law (e ) a talk on disability and
human rights by Hon M. T Masutha, the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services of South
Africa (f) a talk by former Chief Justice Deepak Misra of the Republic of India on the “Progressive
Realization of Rights through the Courts: the experience of the Supreme Court of India”, (g)
awareness session on human rights for senior chief executives and permanent secretaries (h)
several workshops to build capacity of the members of the National Mechanism for Reporting and
Follow Up, officials and NGOs.
85.
Moreover, it is worthwhile noting that in 2017, the National Human Rights Commission
entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the European Union (EU) whereby the EU
will be financing a three-year campaign to educate the public on human rights. The target groups
are women, school children, the private sector, police officers and prison officers among others.
86.
Apart from financing the NHRC, the European Union (EU) is funding the Decentralised
Cooperation Programme (DCP) where it is financially supporting NGOs and community-based
organisations on poverty- reduction projects. Since 2006, some 412 grants, worth Rs 456 million
have been allocated to strengthen capacity development of NGOs in key areas such as, project
management, strategic planning, governance and policy dialogue. Moreover, 4 NGOs have been
able to secure financing in 2019, in the field of women rights, children rights, disabilities and good
governance, totaling Rs 60 M from the EU following a call for proposal. Other call for proposals
to the tune of Rs 100M are expected shortly.
87.
Other Ministries/ Departments/ NHRIs and other stakeholders may report on their
awareness campaigns and workshops organized, on human rights aspects.
88.
Additional details on the Human Rights activities are at Annex 1-d.
INFORMATION ON NON-DISCRIMINATION AND EQUALITY AND EFFECTIVE REMEDIES
89.
The Constitution of Mauritius firmly establishes the right of every citizen to be treated
equally and to live a life free from discrimination. It prohibits discrimination on, inter alia, the
ground of caste, colour, creed, sex and race. It also provides that no law shall be discriminatory
either in itself or in its effect. Section 3 of the Constitution is at Annex 3.
90.
Section 16 of the Constitution, inter alia, provides that “no law shall make any provision
that is discriminatory either of itself or in its effect”. The term “discriminatory” is defined as
“affording different treatment to different persons attributable wholly or mainly to their respective
descriptions by race, caste, place of origin, political opinions, colour, creed or sex whereby
persons of one such description are subjected to disabilities or restrictions to which persons of
another such description are not made subject or are accorded privileges or advantages that are
not accorded to persons of another such description”. Section 17 of the Constitution provides that
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