Permanent Mission of India, Geneva

Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group
24th Session (18-29 January 2016)

2nd UPR of Seychelles – Interactive Dialogue
Monday, 25 January 2016, 09:00 am - 12:30 pm

Statement by India

Mr. President,

India extends a very warm welcome to the delegation of Seychelles.

Mr. President,

2.       We commend the new legislative initiatives and amendments undertaken by the government ofSeychelles towards promotion and protection of human rights. We encourage Seychelles to further review the effectiveness of the current framework of the National Human Rights Commission.

3.       Seychelles’ efforts at elimination of judicial case backlog across the board aretruly praiseworthy.

4.       We welcome the positive measures taken by Seychelles to protect the rights and interests of children, including revamping the National Commission for Child Protection and the creation of the Police Child Protection Team in 2015. We encourage Seychelles to continue its efforts towards harmonizing domestic legislation with the provisions of the CRC.

5.       On gender issues, while commending the fact that nearly 44% of Seychelles’ parliamentarians are women, we encourage Seychelles to take a comprehensive and systematic approach to gender mainstreaming, and consider early finalization of the draft national gender policy and its action plan. We also encourage Seychelles to strengthen the Gender Secretariat within the Ministry of Community Development.

6.       We commend the fact that Seychelles achieved education-related MDG before 2015 and the share of public spending on education is over 4%. We encourage Seychelles to continue its efforts towards improvement in quality of primary and secondary education and full integration of children with disabilities in the educational system. In this regard, we recommend renewed focus on technical and vocational training through its proposed Skill Development Programme for the youth.

7.       We take note with appreciation that Seychelles has provided near universal access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities. We also commend the free provision of primary healthcare services for all.  The fact that 51% of the Seychelles’ land area is dedicated to maintenance of nature reserves is commendable.

8.       We wish the delegation of Seychelles all success in its future endeavors.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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