Opinion Pieces

2005 U.S. Department of State Human Rights Report:  Letter to Editor-in-Chief, Le Matinal from Chargé d'Affaires, a.i., Stephen Schwartz.
      

                                                                              Port Louis, Mauritius
                                                                              March 15, 2006

Mr. Kiran Ramsahaye
Editor-in-Chief, Le Matinal
AAPCA House
6 rue La Poudrière
Port Louis, Mauritius

Dear Mr. Ramsahaye,

 Your March 12th article on the 2005 Department of State Human Rights Report was misleading.  The piece presented a litany of shortcomings identified in the report to the exclusion of the many positive citations.  As a result, the reader would likely conclude that the U.S. government judges the local human rights situation as poor. This is not true.

 The report asserts that the Government of Mauritius “generally respected the human rights of its citizens.”  This means that the Mauritian government has a very good human rights record.  To wit, among the many positive citations are:

- The law provides citizens with the right to change their government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis on universal suffrage.
- The law provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and the government generally respected these rights in practice. 
- The Sex and Discrimination Act affords women broadly defined wage protection, and authorities generally respected the law in practice.
- The law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention, and the government generally observed these prohibitions.
- There were no government restrictions on the internet or academic freedom.
- The law provides for an independent judiciary, and it was independent in practice.
- There were no reports of political detainees.
- The law provides for the freedom of religion, and the government generally respected this right in practice.

In the future, I hope our publications would receive more balanced coverage from your paper.  For you information, I have enclosed a copy of the 2005 Human Rights Report in its entirety.  Please be reminded that the Embassy is always happy to assist in clarifying information on our reports and activities.

Sincerely,

Stephen M. Schwartz
Chargé d’Affaires, a.i.

Enclosure

cc:  Patrice Curé
      Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade, and Cooperation