A/HRC/40/9 provisions had been incorporated into its legislation, to the extent possible. It had ratified the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol) in June 2017, with reservations, and the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data in June 2016. Furthermore, it had acceded to the Arms Trade Treaty in July 2015 and had recently deposited the instrument for ratification of the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-traps and Other Devices as Amended on 3 May 1996 (Protocol II as amended on 3 May 1996) and the Protocol on Explosive Remnants of War (Protocol V) to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure would be ratified once the Children’s Bill was enacted, and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was expected to be ratified in 2019. 9. Mauritius had not been able to implement some of the recommendations from the second review cycle, given its specific situation. While it was a multicultural society, Mauritius was an island with limited resources, thus not in a position to accept migrant workers with their family members or to grant refugee status to foreigners, although it provided assistance for their settlement in other countries. 10. The Social Integration and Empowerment Act of December 2016 provided for empowerment schemes to combat absolute poverty and for financial support to families who were eligible under the Social Register of Mauritius and had signed their social contract. The Government strongly supported families with a very low to low income who already owned a plot of land and who were willing to build a house through a grant scheme. 11. The enactment of the National Minimum Wage Regulations in December 2017 had been further strengthened by the implementation of the negative income tax scheme. The universal non-contributory basic retirement pension had also been increased. 12. Some 20,600 young people had been placed in employment from 2013 to June 2018 through the Youth Employment Programme. 13. The Police and Criminal Justice Bill, which would be introduced in the National Assembly in the current term, would include provisions to better guarantee citizens’ human rights and fundamental freedoms. The Extradition Act of 1970 had been repealed and replaced by new legislation in 2017 to make better provision for the extradition of persons from and to Mauritius. 14. With regard to electoral reforms and the complaint made to the Human Rights Committee by the political party Rezistans ek Alternativ (Resistance and Alternative), Mauritius was fully committed to reforming the electoral system so as to ensure a fairer representation in the National Assembly, to guarantee better women’s representation and to address the issue of the mandatory declaration of a candidate’s community. A ministerial committee had been set up in January 2016 to make proposals, and the electoral reforms which, inter alia, aimed to achieve adequate representation of all minorities in the National Assembly, had been presented on 21 September 2018. The Electoral Boundaries Commission was currently reviewing electoral boundaries as provided in the Constitution. 15. In the area of international humanitarian law, Mauritius had amended the Firearms Act in 2016; and passed the Anti-Personnel Mines and Cluster Munitions (Prohibition) Act of 2016 to incorporate both the Convention on Cluster Munitions and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, into domestic law. It had also enacted the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, in 2018. 16. There had been a marked increase in the number of women participating in the previous general elections. In the Local Government Act, amended in 2015, it was stipulated that every group representing more than two candidates in an election must ensure that not more than two thirds of the candidates in that group were of the same sex. There were currently 7 elected female members (out of a total of 69 seats) in the National 3