Views of the State under review concerning recommendations and/or conclusions, as well as its voluntary commitments

1. Views of the State under review concerning recommendations
and/or conclusions, as well as its voluntary commitments

995. In response to the recommendation that Mali should issue a standing invitation to special procedures mandate holders, the delegation said that the country was prepared to cooperate fully with all special procedures of the Human Rights Council. Mali pledged to give thorough consideration to all requests for visits addressed by the special procedures.

996. A group of countries had recommended that Mali should: enact legislation prohibiting all forms of female genital mutilation, in keeping with recommendations made by the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child; adopt legislative and other measures, including awareness-raising campaigns, with a view to eradicating harmful traditional practices that impeded women’s full enjoyment of their fundamental rights; and, in particular, adopt legislation penalizing female genital mutilation, domestic violence and all forms of violence against women.

997. In response to those recommendations, the representative of Mali said that excision was deeply rooted in Malian cultural practice. While the Government recognized the need to adopt a law prohibiting female genital mutilation, it had given priority to public education and awareness-raising campaigns rather than to the adoption of repressive measures whose practical application could not be guaranteed without the support of all segments of society. It was against that background that the Government had in 2002 established the National Programme to Combat the Practice of Excision. The educational approach taken by the Government had already succeeded in reducing excision rates from 94 per cent to 85 per cent between 1996 and 2006. Furthermore, a nationwide survey on excision was currently being carried out. The survey findings would determine what steps should be taken in the medium term with regard to the adoption of a law prohibiting and punishing that practice.

998. With regard to violence against women and girls, the Malian delegation said that the country’s Criminal Code criminalized all forms of violence, including domestic violence. In addition, the National Plan to Combat Violence against Women and Girls for the period 2006 2011, which was currently being implemented, contained measures that targeted excision as well as other forms of violence against women and girls; those measures ranged from the creation of intervention mechanisms, the provision of assistance to victims and information, education and communication (IEC) activities to the revision of existing legislation and the adoption of new texts.

999. Luxembourg had recommended that Mali should, inter alia, establish legal equality between men and women with a view to abolishing any discrimination and all violence. In response to that recommendation, Mali had stated that the revision of the Marriage and Guardianship Code, which had begun some years before, had led to the preparation of a draft Personal and Family Code that provided for the elimination of all discriminatory provisions relating to women. National consultations on the draft had already been concluded, and the resulting report had been officially transmitted to the President on 22 May 2008. It was slated for adoption by the Government in the near future and would then be submitted to Parliament.

1000. The United States of America had recommended that Mali should increase awareness of efforts to combat forced labour, paying special attention to groups such as the Bellah, or black Tamacheks. In reply, Mali had noted that the country’s Constitution and legislation prohibited forced labour, which was also prohibited by law. However, certain cultural practices did persist in some parts of the country, although they tended to disappear as the school enrolment rate rose in the community concerned.

1001. Canada had recommended that Mali should revise the “insult law”, respect the freedom of opinion and expression and refrain from imposing penal sanctions on journalists. Mali had responded that the country’s Constitution recognized the right to freedom of opinion and expression as well as freedom of the press. According to those constitutional provisions, those rights and freedoms were exercised within the framework of the law. That was why the Act on

the press and offences against legislation governing the press and the Criminal Code provided for sanctions in that area. However, the issue was under discussion in Mali, and the trend was towards the decriminalization of press-related offences.

1002. The Malian delegation recalled the voluntary pledges and commitments undertaken by the country pursuant to General Assembly resolution 60/251, on the Human Rights Council. Mali fully endorsed respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as enshrined in its Constitution and the international legal instruments to which it was a party. In accordance with its international commitments, it had submitted its initial and periodic reports to the monitoring mechanisms created for that purpose, such as the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Mali had been the first State party to submit its initial report to the Committee on Migrant Workers.

1003. In the wake of the democratization that had taken place in 1991, Mali had strengthened its institutional mechanisms for the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular through the National Advisory Commission on Human Rights, the Ombudsman, the Private-Sector Facilitator, the Higher Council on Communication and the National Committee on Equal Access to State Media. It had also reaffirmed the principle of the separation of powers and laid down clear definitions of each authority’s sphere of competencies.

1004. In addition, Mali had in 1994 created a unique mechanism for the promotion and protection of human rights: the Forum for Democratic Challenges (Espace d’interpellation démocratique). Every year on 10 December the Government of Mali organized a forum to pay a special tribute to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the anniversary of its adoption; the Forum was presided over by a jury that gave citizens an opportunity to air their grievances to government officials and hear their responses. After the discussion, the jury made recommendations whose implementation was monitored and evaluated before the next Forum was held.

1005. The Constitution reaffirmed the lay nature of the Malian State. It guaranteed freedom of opinion, religion, association, assembly and protest as well as the right to vote. The Constitution also guaranteed freedom of the press; Mali had more than 30 private newspapers and more than 150 independent local radio stations.

1006. Article 1 of the Malian Constitution provided that “the human person is sacred and inviolable. All individuals have the right to life, liberty, security and integrity of person”. In that spirit, the Government of Mali had in 2002 adopted a draft law declaring a moratorium on the death penalty for a period of two years. It should be noted that the death penalty had not been imposed in Mali since 1984. The National Assembly of Mali was currently considering a bill abolishing capital punishment.

1007. Mali had also adopted a number of measures to strengthen the rule of law and the Government’s obligation to enforce the principle of equality of all citizens in their relations with the civil service. Those measures were set out in Act No. 98/12 of 19 January 1998, on relations between the civil service and public service users.

1008. Mali was a member of a number of intergovernmental mechanisms for the promotion and protection of human rights, including the Community of Democracies, which it had chaired during the period 2005-2007. Given its tradition of unwavering commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights, the Government of Mali had decided to submit its candidacy for the Human Rights Council. Mali had pledged that, if elected, it would, inter alia:

(a) Stress cooperation and constructive dialogue between members and non-members of the Human Rights Council with a view to enhancing the effective execution of the Council’s mandate;

(b) Continue to discharge its obligations to submit, under the international legal instruments to which it was a party, initial and periodic reports to the respective treaty monitoring bodies and to implement the recommendations of those bodies;

(c) Support the active participation of non-governmental organizations and other civil society representatives in the work of the Council;

(d) Encourage States that had not yet done so to become parties to the major human rights instruments and, accordingly, to comply with their obligations thereunder;

(e) Strengthen democracy, good governance, the rule of law and human rights through bilateral and multilateral cooperation, particularly through the United Nations;

(f) Cooperate fully with the procedures and mechanisms of the Human Rights Council;

(g) Promote the development of human rights norms; and

(h) Promote human rights education.

1009. At the domestic level, Mali was taking or intended to take appropriate action in the following areas:

(a) Strengthening institutional support for the National Human Rights Commission and applying for its accreditation by the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions;

(b) Stepping up action to eliminate discrimination against women, violence against women and the practice of female genital mutilation;

(c) Provision of support for the implementation of the Ten-Year Justice Development Programme (PRODEJ) and other programmes for the promotion and protection of human rights;

(d) Adoption of the draft Personal and Family Code and the bill on abolition of the death penalty;

(e) Continuation and strengthening of measures aimed at promoting equality between men and women;

(f) Establishment of juvenile courts and specialized detention, re-education and rehabilitation centres for women and children in the country’s eight regions;

(g) Establishment of compulsory health insurance and a medical care fund;

(h) Initiation, in 2007, of a review process in Mali within the framework of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) African Peer Review Mechanism.

1010. As to what was expected of Mali following the conclusion of the review process, the delegation said that Mali upheld the principles of the universality, interdependence, indivisibility and interrelatedness of all human rights. It was in that context that it had endorsed the adoption of a Poverty Reduction Strategy Framework in 2002 and a Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Framework in 2007. The Economic and Social Development Programme on the basis of which President Amadou Toumani Touré had been re-elected in 2007 attached priority to the promotion of all human rights. Mali remained convinced that, with the assistance of the international community, implementation of that Programme would do much to promote the development of a society that could offer a better life to the entire population. The delegation recalled that, as noted in Mali’s national report, that assistance was being requested in order to:

(a) Harmonize national legislation more fully with the provisions of international human rights instruments;

(b) Strengthen the capacity of State and non-State actors for the promotion and protection of human rights;

(c) Build institutional and operational capacity for the administration of justice, especially by increasing the number of courts and tribunals, providing training for judges and court officials and improving living conditions for inmates of prisons and correctional education institutions;

(d) Enhance technical capacity for the preparation and submission of Mali’s human rights reports;

(e) Incorporate content relating to human rights, the culture of peace, democracy and citizenship in formal and informal educational programmes;

(f) Ensure the translation of the main national, regional and international human rights instruments into the principal national languages;

(g) Improve the civil registry system;

(h) Organize various activities to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.