Mauritius is focused more on a unified pluralistic society where unity and diversity continue to remain the core development and progress. One of the priorities of the Government of Mauritius is to provide its people with a quality of life based on human dignity, equality of treatment, economic empowerment and social justice. The Government is very effectual in ensuring that Mauritius is a modern democracy, which protects and provides equal rights and opportunities for all its citizens. Discrimination occurs when treating people less favorably than others because of their sex, skin colour, ethnic origin, political opinion, disability, age, class, previous conviction, etc whereas equal opportunities are ensuring fair and equal treatment for everyone, and tackling discrimination wherever it exists and in whatever form.
In January 2012, Mauritius enacted the Equal Opportunities Act which provides better protection against all forms of discrimination. The Act aims at eliminating direct or indirect discrimination on the basis of age, caste, creed, ethnic origin, impairment, and marital status, place of origin, political opinion, race, sex or sexual orientation. In October 2012, the Government of Mauritius launched the National Human Rights Action Plan for the period 2012-2020. This is a landmark in the human rights landscape of Mauritius. The Action Plan embodies all the commitments taken by the Government of Mauritius to improve the human rights situation in line with international best practices. It aims at inculcating a human rights culture among all sections of the population. In this vein, a Human Rights Monitoring Committee has equally been established comprising representatives of relevant ministries and departments, National Human Rights Institutions as well as NGOs to ensure the implementation of the recommendations of the National Human Rights Action Plan.
Educating the population on human rights at all levels and nurturing a culture of human rights in the island remains a priority for the Government.
