ISO: MUS *************************************************************************** The electronic version of this document has been prepared at the Fourth World Conference on Women by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women Secretariat. *************************************************************************** AS WRITTEN REPUBLIC OF MAURITIUS FOURTH WORLD CONFERENCE ON WOMEN BEIJING, CHINA, SEPTEMBER 1995 STATEMENT BY HONOURABLE MRS SHEILABAI BAPPOO, MINISTER OF WOMEN'S RIGHTS, CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND FAMILY WELFARE Madam Chairperson, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates Ladies and Gentlemen, Allow me, Madam Chairperson, to congratulate you and the distinguished members of your bureau on your election to preside over this august assembly. On behalf of the Mauritius delegation, I would also like to place on record my appreciation for the praise-worthy initiative taken by the United Nations in convening this Conference. On this historic occasion, I feel highly privileged and honoured to head my country's delegation and to convey to the Government and the people of the People's Republic of China and to all delegations present here today the greetings of the Republic of Mauritius. With a territory of roughly 2,000 sq. km, Mauritius has a multi-racial population of about 1.1 million tracing its origins to three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. It is generally quoted as one of the rare multiracial, multi-religious, multi- lingual, and mullet-cultural countries living in peaceful co-existence and harmony. Mauritius acceded to independence in 1968 and became a republic in 1992. Of all member countries of the OAU, Mauritius has the lowest maternal mortality rate - 0.7 per 1,000 in 1994, the second lowest infant mortality rate 13.9 per 1,000. The core issues of the Fourth World Conference on Women have been the basis of the policy of the Mauritian Government which lays special emphasis on human centred development. As Mauritius is not endowed with natural resources, the economic development which was initially based on a monocrop agricultural strategy has diversified to labour- intensive export-oriented industries where women play a significant and productive role in the social economic growth of the country. Since the past decades various amendments have been brought to our legislation with a view to empowering women legally; Marriage laws, Pensions law, Income Tax laws inter-alia have been amended to give equal rights to women. All this has been achieved with the active participation of NGO's. Madam Chairperson, it is with much pride that I wish to inform this assembly that the Republic of Mauritius has made a gigantic stride on its way to achieve equality. In fact only last months the Mauritian Government has amended its Constitution with a view to eliminating all discrimination based on sex. Women of Mauritius have, thus, come to the end of a long struggle for equality. The historic event in Beijing is a continuum of the process started 10 years ago in Nairobi. It connects us to goals and objectives set forward in Mexico in 1975 and in Copenhagen in 1980 at previous World Conferences. The UN Decade for Women from 1976 to 1985 was an undeniable breakthrough in propelling women's issues to the forefront and in putting on the agenda the themes of equality, development and peace throughout the world. WE acknowledge the process made worldwide in the search for equality for women and in the advancement of women. While we recognise that the struggle is still on, the significant changes that our societies are experiencing are bringing new challenges for women. I firmly believe that equality constitutes the basis for promoting the economic and social empowerment of women. One of the central challenges of development is how to enable the labour force participation of women in paid work to operate in a manner which is socially sustainable, thus security the right of women to work. At the same time, the invisible contribution of women in non-remunerated work has to be recognised and economically and socially accounted for in national socio-economic indicators. As Minister of ;Women’s Rights, Child Development and Family Welfare, I have succeeded in having my Ministry's current budget increased to the order of 4.ó million US$ so as to implement policies, programmes and projects relating to women, children and the family. My Ministry is now adopting a policy oriented approach in the formulation and implementation of its projects and programmes. A White Paper on Women in Development has been prepared taking into consideration our achievements in the field of health, education, employment, and other economic and social indicators. It is worth noting that girls are taking full advantage of free education and the enrolment rate for girls at primary level is 93.32Ó. At secondary level, it is 47.690 as compared to 45.390 for boys. Women have been the main beneficiaries of the welfare state policy of Government, particularly in the health sector. The life expectancy of women at birth is 73.9 years compared to 66.2 years for men. Much consideration is given to women’s reproductive health. The general fertility rate has fallen from l03.6% in 1972 to 70.4% in 1994, thus bringing the population growth rate to 1,1% in 1994. The fact that women have controlled their fertility has been one of the factors enabling them to join the labour market and to play a significant role in the nation building process. Thus about 40% of women are in the active labour force. Madam Chairperson, Several speakers have declared that this conference should be a conference of- commitments and I would add that b-y declaring our national commitments we would have a yardstick to measure the progress made by the year 2000. Mauritius has already identified four critical areas among the eleven areas of concern found in the Draft Global Platform of action and is therefore committing itself first to the integration of gender issues into the mainstream of Government and private sector activities. To this end, I am pleased to say that the Government has already approved the setting up of a gender management system which will enable national machineries to formulate and influence policies taking into consideration gender concerns. Secondly,mauritius is committing itself to developing a holistic approach -to the health and welfare of women with special attention to the girl-child women at work both at home and outside home and the elderly women. In the field of health, we will also make reproductive health a priority action area with country-wide breast and cervical cancer detection campaigns. Our third commitment is the enactment of a Domestic Violence Act coupled with a national IEC campaign, -the reinforcement of both our Family Counselling Service and our School of Parenting to fight the scourge of violence in the family. A survey will also be conducted to identify impediments which arise in the implementation of the law and which prevents women from enjoying their full rights. Our fourth commitment relates to education. We will further pursue our policy to encourage girls to take up technical and non-traditional subjects so that they may engage in professions which were hitherto considered as male domains only.