ARTICLE 4 - RIGHT TO LIFE AND INTEGRITY OF A PERSON Human beings are inviolable. Every human being shall be entitled to respect for his life and the integrity of his person. No one may be arbitrarily deprived of this right. CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY 7. Mauritius strongly supports the efforts of the international community to put an end to impunity for serious crimes against humanity. 8. The Geneva Conventions of 1949 have been incorporated into our law by virtue of the Geneva Conventions Act which makes it an offence to commit a grave breach of any of the four Geneva Conventions. The International Criminal Court Act was passed in 2011 to provide for the effective implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in the laws of Mauritius. DEATH PENALTY 9. The National Assembly enacted the Abolition of Death Penalty Act in 1995, thereby abolishing death penalty. Following the enactment of the Abolition of Death Penalty Act 1995, all death sentences imposed have been commuted to sentences of penal servitude for life. The Supreme Court may now inflict sentences of penal servitude for life or sentences for terms not exceeding 60 years where the law so provides. However, section 4 (1) of the Constitution provides that “No person shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been convicted”. This section has not yet been amended to prohibit the imposition of death sentences. An amendment to section 4(1) of the Constitution would need to be supported at the final voting in the Assembly by the votes of not less than three quarters of all the members of the Assembly. It is to be noted that the last execution of death penalty was on 10 October 1987. UNWANTED PREGNANCY 10. In May 2012 amendments were introduced in Parliament to the Criminal Code to authorise the termination of pregnancy in specified circumstances, namely, in cases where – (a) the continued pregnancy will endanger the pregnant person’s life; (b) the termination is necessary to prevent grave permanent injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant person; 57