Lapel LALIT pu enn Kanpayn Nasyonal pu al Direk Lopital dan Ka Agresyon Sexyel

08.03.2025

A lokazyon Zurne Internasyonal Fam 2025, manb Komisyon Fam LALIT, Cindy Clelie ek Lindsey Collen, finn al depoz enn let pu Minis Jennder, Hon Arianne Navarre, Vandredi 7 March 2025.  Redaksyon LALIT swet tu fam enn bonn fet fam, enn zur revandikasyon osi byin ki selebrasyon.

Dan sa lapel Komisyon Fam LALIT la, ena revandikasyon pu enn kanpayn nasyonal pu tu dimunn donn kudme, konsey viktim agresyon sexyel sipa vyol, pu al direk Lopital. Bizin al direk lopital, pa al direk stasyon lapolis. Si kikenn al Stasyon Lapolis, ofisye laba sipoze diriz li kot Lopital, apre ki li finn met enn lantre an-gro ki ofans finn komet (“the gist of the offense”). 

Deza finn ena enn “Protokol” ant Minister Jennder, Minister Lasante ek Komiser Lapolis – depi 2006. Me, piblik pankor kone. Alor, ena 3 demand: 

1. Kanpayn pu tu dimunn konsey viktim al direk lopital.

2. Institye “dril” kuma “fire drill” dan tu lopital, pu kan enn ka prezante dan Kazyelti.

3. Exzize ki Komiser Lapolis antrenn so ofisye pu avoy viktim direk lopital apre enn depozisyon kurt an-gro.

LALIT finn donn lapres enn kopi nu let, ki inklir enn kopi Protokol ofisyel existan.

Nu pe pibliye let la an antye, avek enn kopi “Protokol ofisyel” existan anba li:

Dear Minister Arianne Navarre-Marie,

Re: LALIT calls for Campaign for Women to go Direct to Hospital after Sexual Assault or Rape

You will recall that, during your term as Minister, in response to an appeal by the Muvman Liberasyon Fam, your Ministry took the historic step of instituting, for the very first time, “Sexual Assault Units” in hospitals. 

History will remember you for this important first step to spare victims from the trauma of the Police Station. 

The appeal to you was made, we believe, in September 2002. By November, there were already Rape Crisis Units set up under the improved name “Sexual Assault Units”. They were in two Regional Hospitals, Jeetoo and Victoria – as a crucial first step to setting up units in all hospitals on Mauritius and Rodrigues Islands. 

The original idea that MLF put forward was actually born in LALIT. We formally transmitted the idea to the MLF. We, in LALIT, have since 2002 followed cycles of progress and then regression on this important move for the struggle against patriarchal violence and dominance. We write to you now, on International Women’s Day, because a political move is necessary to continue this good work. Here is an update for your Ministry.

What happened was that the MLF discussed LALIT’s proposal thoroughly, then took it up with you, and you put it into practice. We put on record our acknowledgement that it must have taken a good deal of thinking and hard work on your part, and on the part of your officers in the Ministry at the time to get it set up. 

But victories against patriarchy are not always easily preserved. 

The aim, as you will recall, was to offer all victims of sexual assault an immediate right to go direct to a Hospital for care. This spared victims the harrowing experience of going to a Police Station, a known epi-centre of patriarchal power. We consider this a major step in combatting gender-based violence.

How we and your Ministry imagined it was that, everyone in the country advises any victim who comes to them to go at once to the caring atmosphere of a hospital, which would act as a “one-stop-shop”. The police, too, were supposed to give this advice, should a victim turn up at the Police Station. The idea was, and is, that a victim of sexual assault or rape gets their emergency medical care, any anti-STD's care, the day-after pill if chosen, with someone at hand, like a nurse, for the victim to talk to informally, and then also, if requested, a psychologist to support them. The Police pathologist would be called in for any specimens that need taking, and also a woman police officer for a statement, if appropriate – all in the same caring, geographic setting of a hospital. No more trauma in Police Stations for victims of rape and other forms of sexual aggression – whether they are women, girls, men or boys. No more treating the victim as if she was the perpetrator.

But, despite the MLF having sent out over one thousand letters by post – it was still the time of snail mail – to all the women’s associations and individual women’s rights advocates in the country, in order to popularize this victory, somehow the Sexual Assault Units did not get known well enough to the general public to compete with the old habits: Victims ended up going direct to the police station, as before. 

The old patriarchal habits were too strong. 

In 2004, the MLF wrote to the Prime Minister himself to inform him that Police Officers in Police Stations all over the Republic were continuing to fail to refer victims directly to Rape Crisis Units, Sexual Assault Units in hospitals. And because people in the public were not consciously aware of the Units, the Units were no longer functional. 

In February 2006, the MLF wrote to the then Women’s Rights Minister Indira Seeburn informing her that the rape crisis units did not seem to be operational any longer, and requesting her to ensure that they do function. We also called on her to popularize them at the same time, so people who are victims, and anyone who advises them, knows where victims should go i.e. to hospitals. 

Following this letter, Minister Seeburn requested a meeting with the MLF to discuss the matters raised. We met that same month of February 2006. After the meeting, two MLF members who are also in LALIT, Ragini Kistnasamy and Rajni Lallah, report that they had a technical session with Mr. Appadoo, the Ministry’s officer in charge of the dossier at the time, to help in the preparation of the Minister’s “Cabinet paper”.

In September 2006, the Minister announced a key development. There was a new written “Protocol”. It is an excellent document.* It had been prepared and signed up to by the two Ministries directly concerned – Women’s and Health, as well as by the Police Commissioner, himself. There were FIVE big hospitals concerned on Mauritius Island and ONE on Rodrigues Island. 

Victory!

The MLF at the time expressed appreciation but warned that there would need to be a national campaign of huge proportions for everyone to know about the new system of going direct to a hospital. The contents of this Protocol (see footnote) was available on the Ministry’s website, to the credit of the Ministry, for over a decade. But, clearly this was not enough.

The problem, we in LALIT believe, is that none of us wants even to contemplate that we, ourselves, might become a victim of sexual aggression. Such is the taboo. We don’t even think those close to us will ever suffer this misfortune. We banish the idea. So, the information about going to Sexual Assault Units or Rape Crisis Units in hospitals seems, at the time we hear it, not to concern us. This means, we will need a vast campaign like the brilliant Family Planning TV ads the government ran in the 1970’s, using witty texts and puppets, to overcome a massive problem of unconsciously suppressing the information we needed then.

Anyway, by October 2009, the MLF had once again to write to Minister Seeburn to inform her that the Sexual Assault Units seemed to no longer be operational! We had read in the Press and heard on Radio of women and girls, once again, suffering in Police Stations, being sent from one Station to another.

In January 2015, the MLF again contacted a new Women’s Minister, Ms Perraud to inform her that the Sexual Assault Units had once again disappeared because the State had not run a broad enough, deep enough and long enough campaign to inform potential victims – that is all of us – of its existence. Women and girls were once again sitting around for hours on end at police stations, or shunted from one police station to another. 

In June 2017, 10 women’s organizations joined with the MLF in an attempt, ourselves, to publicize the Sexual Assault Units. We held a joint Press Conference at the Government Teachers’ union offices. It received press, radio, and even TV coverage. At the same time we formulated a demand to Government to take its responsibility, too, and really find ways to inform victims. 

The MLF in 2018 met the Ombudsperson for Children, Rita Venkatasamy, who contributed to making the Sexual Assault Units known to those caring for children. She reported that in Rodrigues, the consciousness seemed more advanced on this issue, and all parts of the state apparatus in Rodrigues did pull together so that children are not taken to the Police Station as first port of call. This work is referenced in the Ombudsperson’s Annual Report 2017-18. She picked up the MLF’s concept of a “one-stop-shop” at the Sexual Assault Units for all victims.

In LALIT’s Program in the run-up to the 2019 General Elections, we in LALIT made the formal demand for a kind of “drill” once or twice a year, just like a “fire drill” to keep the staff at hospitals in good training on the basis of the Written Protocol for the moment when a Sexual Assault Unit needs to come into being.

The MLF in its letter to political parties before the same elections, stressed how important Sexual Assault Units in all hospitals are – if only everyone knew about them at the key time of becoming a victim. 

In 2019, the MLF gave evidence to the Law Reform Commission on Sexual Assault laws needing overhaul. The deposition was later published as a 160-page book. It includes a chapter on the Sexual Assault Units. 

On International Women’s day 2022, the MLF again, we believe, called on Political parties, inter alia, to “assure that everyone knows that, after rape and sexual assault, victims can go direct to the five main hospitals on Mauritius Island and one in Rodrigues, and do not need to go to the police station anymore”;

In January 2025, the MLF we believe wrote to your Ministry again.

Victims are still, until now, going to the police station first. 

Society, until now, still concentrates all efforts on the patriarchal notion of “punishing the perpetrator” by criminal proceedings, and leaving the victim to fend for herself in that process. Women and girls until today still end up being neglected or being subjected to further indignity, often unconsciously imposed, at police stations. Until recently we still hear people who should know better coming on private Radio Programs advising victims to go to police station as the first port of call. So, still, until now, the Police force, a disciplined force, maintains its monopoly control over victims, who ought to be in the care of the health authorities. 

So, the victory – even once it was formulated in the excellent “Written Protocol”, words printed on paper and words up on the Ministry website – turned out to be "pyrrhic". This Latin word was popularized in Kreol in the women’s movement during the process of this struggle because we had so many such victories that turn out hollow!

So, by this open letter, we in LALIT, using the political means that parties have, persist alongside the women’s movement, in this important quest for society to offer the victims of rape and sexual aggression a “one-stop-shop” in all major hospitals. And we are sure that you will, with us, persist, too. With our shared experience, we can now hope to make real progress, and change society so that people actually use the written protocol and the Sexual Assault Units functions. 

• To be practical now. We in LALIT, have learnt that there are three distinct obstacles:  First, people’s minds are not open to Sexual Assault Units because we are all convinced that rape and sexual assault will not happen to us. Even if it has already happened to half of us or more! We block the information out. Second, the Sexual Assault Units are not a physical feature. They are brought into existence when a victim appears at Casualty. The appearance of a victim then summons together the physical carers for injuries during the aggression, for pregnancy prevention, for treatment to ward off any sexually transmitted illness – different doctors and nurses concerned come into the picture – as well as psychological carers. The Police doctor may be called in for taking swabs, if necessary. And a Women Police Officer can, if so desired by the victim, be called in so the victim can give her a statement while in the caring atmosphere of the hospital. The problem is that it is easy for all this process of “coming into existence” to be forgotten, as new staff come in, and if there is a lull in reported cases for a while. Third, the Police Commissioner needs to run training for all Police Stations to implement the first phrase in the “Protocol” Scenario 1 (when a victim goes to the Police Station): “Victim gives a regular declaration regarding only the gist of the offence. The full statement may be taken, at a later stage, at the hospital. Thereafter, the victim proceeds to the nearest regional hospital.”

So, what do we suggest?

1. A well-planned, proper national information campaign so everyone knows about the Sexual Assault Crisis Units in all hospitals, as first port-of-call for a victim. This campaign can be informed by the vast, successful campaign for family planning, when there was opposition to the use of contraception. 

2. Institution of “Sexual Assault Unit Drills” in all hospitals** once or twice a year. This is like “fire drills”. In case of a fire, which no-one expects, a whole protocol comes into being. We call for such drills in cases when a victim arrives at Casualty: at that moment the whole “Sexual Assault Unit Drill” comes into being.

3. The Police Commissioner be asked to train all police officers to send victims direct to hospitals as per the protocol, after a quick statement “on the gist of the offense” (as per existing protocol).

Without these two changes, what our experience has taught us is that we tend to “revert” to the Police Station as first port of call. This must change. We are sure you and your officers can make this happen.

Yours sincerely,

Lindsey Collen and Cindy Clelie, for LALIT Women’s Commission

Footnotes [simplified for publication]

* Protocol of Assistance to Victims of Sexual Assault

Main Provisions

With the application of the Protocol (since March 2006), adult victims of sexual assault may call:

EITHER: Directly at any of the Sexual Assault Units of the 5 regional hospitals (Jeetoo, SSRN, Flacq, J.Nehru & Victoria [in Rodrigues at the Hospital]).

OR: At the Police station found in the area where the offence has been committed; or

When a victim of sexual assault goes directly to any of the regional hospitals:

* The victims goes directly to the Casualty Department.

* The Medical Records Officer (Casualty) will immediately inform the Ward Manager or the Charge Nurse of the Casualty about the case so that arrangement will be made forthwith to receive the victim who is then seen, on a fast track, by the doctor for emergency treatment, if required;

* The Ward Manager/Charge Nurse will inform other medical officers, Ward Manager, Charge Nurse of designated Wards for admission of victims (Gynecologist, Psychologist, Medical Social Worker) about the case so that they arrange to see the victim at the hospital;

* A specific place is being earmarked by the Ministry of health and Quality of Life in one Ward for female adults where the team mentioned above will see the victim as and when required. Arrangements will be made at the level of the hospital for victims to be treated in the presence of a close female relative;

* The Ward Manager/Charge Nurse will inform the Police Post which in turn contacts the Police Station in the locality of the hospital and makes arrangements for a statement of the victim to be taken;

* A Woman Police Officer from the Police Station of the locality of the hospital will take the preliminary statement of the victim. Further statements would need to be taken, at a later stage, by officers of the Police Station of the region where the offence took place;

* The medical examination is undertaken and swabs are taken by the Police Medical Officer at the hospital;

* Appropriate treatment for HIV/AIDS should be given to the victim.

* The Police Post informs the Ministry of Women’s Rights, Child Development, Family Welfare and Consumer Protection of the case of sexual assault. Subject to their consent, adult victims will be provided with psychological assistance by the Psychologists of the Ministry of Women’s Rights, Child Development, family Welfare and Consumer Protection.

When a victim of sexual assault reports the case to the Police Station in the locality where the offence has been committed:

* Victim gives a regular declaration regarding only the gist of the offence. The full statement may be taken, at a later stage, at the hospital. Thereafter, the victim proceeds to the nearest regional hospital;

* The Police Station contacts the Police Medical Officer and makes arrangements for the early examination of the victim;

* The Medical Records Officer (Casualty) will immediately inform the Ward Manager or the Charge Nurse of the Casualty about the case so that arrangement will be made forthwith to receive the victim who is then seen, on a fast track, by the doctor for emergency treatment, if required;

* The Ward Manager/Charge Nurse will inform other medical officers, Ward Manager, Charge Nurse of designated Wards for admission of victims (Gynecologist, Psychologist, medical Social Worker) about the case so that they arrange to see the victim at the hospital;

 * A specific place has been earmarked by the Ministry of health and Quality of Life in one Ward for female adults where the team mentioned above will see the victim as and when required. Arrangements will be made at the level of the hospital for victims to be treated in the presence of a close female relative;

* The medical examination is undertaken and swabs are taken by the Police Medical Officer at the hospital;

* Appropriate treatment for HIV/AIDS should be given to the victim.

* The Police Station informs the Ministry of Women’s Rights, Child Development, Family Welfare and Consumer Protection of the case of sexual assault. Subject to their consent, adult victims will be provided with psychological assistance by the Psychologists of the ministry of Women’s Rights, Child Development, family Welfare and Consumer Protection.

** List of Hospitals concerned

1  Jeetoo Hospital in Port Louis

2 Victoria Hospital in Quatre Bornes

3 SSR National Hospital in Pamplemousses

4 Constance in Flacq

5 Jewarlall Nehru Hospital in Rose-Belle

6 Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Rodrigues