Mauritius has shown its firm pledge to uphold primacy of democracy, good governance and development and strengthen national institutions that protect human rights of citizens and the rule of law serves as an important assurance of social rights and government accountability, said yesterday the Attorney-General, Mr Y. Varma, at the official opening ceremony of the 2nd Regional Africa-Indian Ocean International Association of Prosecutors (IAP) Conference.
Government is now proposing to introduce the Police and Criminal Evidence Bill in the National Assembly so as to better guarantee the citizen’s constitutional rights to liberty, protection of property, freedom of movement and protection of the law whilst ensuring victims’ rights, announced the Attorney-General.
The conference which is being held at Sofitel Imperial, Flic en Flac, was opened yesterday in presence of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mr Satyayit Boolell and Mr James Hamilton, President of IAP and other eminent personalities.
The IAP has since its creation in June 1995 demonstrated an unwavering commitment for raising the standards of professional conduct and ethics for prosecutors worldwide, promoting the rule of law, fairness, impartiality and respect for human rights and improving international co-operation to combat crime, for the advancement of the rule of law said the DPP, Mr S. Boolell in his address.
Participants from United Kingdom, South Africa, Cameroon, Benin, Ireland, Uganda, Australia, Kenya, Seychelles, Singapore, United States, Zambia and Hong Kong are attending the conference.
The conference is focusing, amongst others, on the following themes: struggle against impunity; challenges to prosecutorial discretion; piracy in the Indian Ocean; victim and witness protection and asset recovery.
The International Association of Prosecutors (IAP), is a non-governmental and non-political organisation. It is the only worldwide organisation of prosecutors. The Association has over 144 Organisational Members – including associations of prosecutors, prosecution agencies and crime prevention agencies – and together with its individual membership it represents over 200,000 prosecutors in over 140 countries/jurisdictions.
The IAP was established in June 1995 at the United Nations offices in Vienna and was formally inaugurated in September 1996 at its first General Meeting in Budapest. The rapid growth in serious transnational crime, particularly drug trafficking, money laundering and fraud led to the creation of the IAP. The need was felt for greater international co-operation between prosecutors and for greater speed and efficiency in mutual assistance, asset tracking and other international co-operative measures.
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