Global Progress Towards Ending the Sexual Exploitation of Children
A global problem requires truly global solutions to address the sexual exploitation of children.
Indicators
Age of Consent
Partial
Age of sexual consent is 16 years. The national legislation does not provide for a close-in-age exemption.
ECO Mauritius, 2019
Extraterritoriality & Extradition
No
Universal jurisdiction is provided for trafficking crimes as long as the foreign offenders have been arrested in Mauritius. It is unclear whether the same applies to other SEC crimes or if double criminality is required.
Extradition requires double criminality and a minimum gravity of 2 years of imprisonment. Extradition of Mauritius citizens may be refused.
ECO Mauritius, 2019
CSAM Definition
No
The national legislation does not provide a specific definition of CSAM.
ECO Mauritius, 2019
Background Check Required
Not Yet Assessed
National Commitments
Partial
Mauritius has ratified the CRC, the OPSC, the Trafficking Protocol and the ILO Convention No. 182.
Mauritius has also ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the AU Convention on Cyber Security.
Mauritius has not ratified the OPIC, the UNWTO Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics and the Council of Europe's Lanzarote and Budapest Conventions.
ECO Mauritius, 2019
Child Advocacy Centers
Not Yet Assessed
SEC Police Unit
Partial
There are several police units that include SEC in their mandates, mainly the Police IT Unit, the Police Crime Prevention Unit, and the Police Family Protection Unit, which established a ‘Brigade des Mineurs’ that focuses on SEC and especially online child sexual exploitation.
It is unclear whether both offences under national and extra-territorial jurisdiction are able to be addressed by these units, or whether they are fully functional.
ECO Mauritius, 2019
Protection Standards Travel and Tourism
Not Yet Assessed
Public SEC Case Data
No
There is public national case data available on cases of child trafficking (although not disaggregated by purpose of the exploitation), exploitation of children in prostitution and child trafficking.
No information was found on whether this data is made available periodically and whether it contains data on offenders and on compensation sought by child victims.
ECO Mauritius, 2019
Age of Consent Law is Appropriate
The age of sexual consent for both males and females is 18 and a close in age exemption (up to 3 years) is provided for consensual sexual relationships between adolescents.
The age of sexual consent is the legally defined age at which a person is considered mature enough to agree to sexual activity. The age of sexual consent varies across jurisdictions around the world and there is no international legal instrument establishing it, however various forms of advocacy have encouraged States to establish a minimum age under which engaging in sexual contact is considered a criminal offence. This is intended to prevent sexual contact with children and to prevent argument that the child consented as a defence.
Often national provisions related to the age of sexual consent include an exception, known as a close-in-age exemption, making consensual sexual activities between young people lawful if the partners are of similar ages and the age difference is not higher than a certain number of years.
To ensure that cases of child sexual exploitation do not go unpunished, ECPAT advocates for the age of sexual consent to be set at 18 for both males and females with a close-in-age exemption of 2-3 years provided in order to ensure young people are not penalised for consensual sexual acts with peers. The age from which the exemption applies should be established by States but may begin for young people somewhere between 12 and 16 years of age.
Yes The national legislation explicitly indicates that the age of sexual consent unequivocally is 18 for both males and females, with a close-in-age exemption for sexual acts between peers (of up to 3 years) is provided by law.