Information received from Seychelles on follow-up to the concluding observations on its sixth periodic report *

* The present document is being issued without formal editing.

[Date received: 7 March 2022]

Follow-up information

1.The following is Seychelles response to the recommendation No. 52 made by the CEDAW Committee in its report CEDAW/C/SYC/6.

2.The Committee requests the State Party to provide, within two years, written information on the steps taken to implement the recommendations contained in paragraphs 18, 28 (a) and 40 (a).

Follow-up information relating to paragraph 18 of the concluding observations (CEDAW/C/SYC/CO/6)

National machinery for the advancement of women

3.The Gender Secretariat is establish within the Research and Policy Planning Division lead by a Director General with two allocated staff members. With the new re-structuring of the Division, the Gender Secretariat also gets support from the Monitoring and Evaluation Section and the Programme Unit. For the past two years, the National Gender Management Team or Gender Working Group has not been active partly due to COVID restrictions and restructuring of the Department. However, request has been made to all sectors concerned to nominate focal persons at organisation levels who will also form part of the CEDAW committee.

Follow-up information relating to paragraph 28 of the concluding observations

Trafficking and exploitation of prostitution

4.To help in the early identification of victims, the Seychelles Police Force embarked on a project to educate all its front line officers to identify and deal with potential victims and/or suspect.

5.Before the restrictions due to COVID, about half of the Police Force front line officers were train in relation on how to deal with domestic violence cases. The Police Force’s aim is to train 100% of front line officers by the end of the year 2021. In July 2021, the UNODC provided a training on human trafficking to participants from the Judiciary, Seychelles Police, Immigration, Custom Division and person’s from the Trafficking in Persons Secretariat of the Internal Affairs.

6.The Police has also included the issues in its training curriculum at the Seychelles Police Academy (apply to 5 above too).

7.In relation to data collection, the Priority Unit from the Detective Service keeps records of all cases, which include both details of the victims and perpetrators, detail of the case status and sentencing.

Follow-up information relating to paragraph 40 of the concluding observations

Health

8.The National Policy on Sexual and Reproductive Health is still in its draft form.

9.Adolescents in Seychelles have access to modern forms of contraceptives and information on sexual and reproductive health and rights. However, access to contraceptives for under 18 years of age is restricted to parental consent as per the Constitutional Law of Seychelles.

10.In Seychelles, the provision for the termination of pregnancy is under the “Termination of Pregnancy Act” (1994). The Act provides the legal framework, with restrictive conditions for the provision of safe access to abortion. Work to review the Act that will ensure women of reproductive age have more access to safe abortion and post-abortion care is yet to be initiated.

11.The Agency for Prevention of Drug Abuse and Rehabilitation (APDAR) was established in 2017 to curtail substance abuse in Seychelles. A draft programme for substance abusing mothers exists, however this has not been implemented due to budgetary restrictions. Nevertheless, APDAR has introduced a special clinic for pregnant women who use opioids has started at the beginning of 2021.

12.The Ministry has not undertaken a study to find out the root cause of suicide rate in women. To note, Seychelles has recorded higher suicide rates in men than women.