A/HRC/11/37 (c) Concerning the recommendation to increase efforts to ensure full compliance of domestic legislation with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Ministry of Women’s Rights, Child Development and Family Welfare was in the process of preparing a consolidated children’s bill; (d) The Government budget for 2009, recently approved by the National Assembly, provided for necessary funds to be allocated to the Office of the Ombudsperson for Children to achieve a number of important objectives and to monitor children’s rights in Mauritius; (e) The Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act was passed on 21 April 2009 and was aimed at not only preventing human trafficking and prosecuting traffickers, but also at providing protection and assistance to victims of trafficking; (f) A series of measures had been announced in the recent budget exercise to eradicate poverty, including the strengthening of the eradication of poverty programme; (g) With a view to alleviating the problem of overcrowding and to providing improved conditions to prisoners, Mauritius planned to build a new, modern prison to accommodate 750 detainees. The land for this purpose had been earmarked and the conceptual design was in progress. 633. Mauritius had also pledged to examine 13 recommendations and had drawn attention to the addendum to the report of the Working Group it had submitted and highlighted a few issues in this regard. 634. The Abolition of the Death Penalty Act had been passed in Mauritius in 1995, and all death sentences had been commuted by operation of the law. Since then, Mauritius has consistently taken an abolitionist stand in international forums. Mauritius had co-sponsored and voted in favour of the resolutions 62/149 and 63/168 on a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, adopted by the General Assembly in 2007 and 2008. 635. Mauritius had acceded to the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees of 28 July 1951, but was not a party to the Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees of 1967. Given its limited resources as a small island developing State, it would be very challenging for Mauritius to adopt an open policy of granting refugee status to foreigners. However, every application for refugee status was treated on a humanitarian basis; Mauritius indeed cooperated with international organizations and other States with a view to facilitating settlement of refugees in States willing to receive them. In practice, the principle of nonrefoulement was observed with regard to persons claiming to be persecuted in their country of origin. 636. Given that the issue of “enforced disappearances” was of no direct relevance to the domestic situation in Mauritius, the ratification of the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance would be given consideration in due course in the light of all relevant factors. 637. With regard to the recommendation to amend constitutional provisions that affected the status of women, Mauritius stated that the Constitution provided for the application, in some cases, of personal laws with respect to adoption, marriage, divorce, burial, devolution of property on death or other like matters. Such laws were not to be deemed discriminatory even if they resulted in different treatment being afforded to different persons on the ground of creed or sex. The inclusion of this provision in the Constitution had been considered necessary in view of the fact that Mauritius was a multireligious, multi-ethnic and multicultural society and that Mauritians of different religions had to be given the freedom to practise their respective religion. The amendment of that provision of the Constitution was not envisaged in the short term. 154 GE.09-16766