Child Abuse
Child abuse is not just physical violence directed at a child. It is any form of maltreatment by an adult, which is violent or threatening
for the child. Mauritius adhered to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction on 01 October 1993. Officers at the Head Office
enforce the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction Act. The main objectives of the Convention are to secure the prompt return of
children wrongfully retained in another State and see to it that the rights of custody and of access under the law of one Contracting State are
effectively respected in another State.
Assistance to Child Abduction
Child Development Unit (CDU)
It ensures that the survival, protection, development and participation rights of the Mauritian child are upheld as per the Convention on the Rights
of the Child whereby the best interests of the child shall be of primary consideration in all policies, programmes and actions pertaining to children’s welfare.
Reporting Cases of Child Abuse
Counselling and psychological support
The CDU offers face-to-face counselling services in outstations whereby children, victims as well as family members are free to discuss the problems
they encounter in a safe and confidential environment.
The CDU also operates a 24-hour Hot Line Service (113) to provide first hand counselling and advice to the public on any family related issue/problem
and in particular to desperate persons who are in urgent need of help and support.
Rehabilitation Programme
As a measure of last resort, children with utterly non-stable families are placed in Residential Care Institutions
(RCIs/Shelters) and are provided with more permanent residential care facilities following the issue of Committal Orders. These institutions
are Charitable Institutions/Non-Governmental Organisations which work in collaboration with the Ministry.
List of Registered Child Day Care Centres (CDDs)
Foster Care Programme
The Foster Care System is to give opportunity to children removed under a Court Order to be placed in foster family to evolve in a substitute
family environment. Upon the application of an Emergency Protection Order, the children, victims of violence are removed from their environment
of risk and placed in a “shelter”. Once a foster parent is registered, a matching exercise is carried out and a child is removed from the “shelter”
and placed with the foster parent for an initial period of three months.
Psychological Services/Child Perpetrator Support Unit
Psychological Services Unit
• To ensure that members of the public benefit from a high quality psychological service with the aim to improve the psychological
wellbeing of clients referred to the Ministry.
• To ensure effective psychological service delivery at the level of the various departments of the Ministry through proper
monitoring and evaluation of such services.
Child Perpetrator Support Unit
• To cater for the psychological needs of juvenile offenders and provide adequate psychological support that would pave the
way towards their rehabilitation and reintegration in the society.
• To attend to requests from different stakeholders namely the DPP and the Judiciary with respect to forensic psychological
evaluation of juvenile offenders.
