Braille version of Constitution of the Republic of Mauritius

The Constitution of the Republic of Mauritius is now available in Braille version. The launching ceremony was held on Wednesday at the Rajiv Gandhi Science Centre, Bell Village, in presence of the Attorney General, Minister of Justice, Human Rights and Institutional Reforms, Maneesh Gobin, the Chairman of the Loïs Lagesse Trust Fund (LLTF), R. Dookun, and other personalities.

Speaking on the occasion, the Minister recalled that the idea of launching a Braille version of the Constitution emerged on 4th January 2018 when some well-wishers of LLTF met in Beau Bassin to launch the Braille version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on the occasion of World Braille Day. He highlighted that staff of the Ministry of Justice, Human Rights and Institutional Reforms, the Attorney General’s office, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and LLTF provided full support to quickly turn this project into reality.

Minister Maneesh Gobin underscored that the Braille version of the Constitution is in line with Government’s commitment to empower persons living with disabilities. He added that Government also aims at giving all necessary facilities to blind and visually impaired youth so that they can pursue and complete their studies without hurdles.

Furthermore, he underlined that it is important for every citizen to know what is in the Constitution as the document, which does not only contain fundamental rights, acts as an umbilical cord to connect the citizen to the country.

Now that a Braille version of the Constitution is available, blind and visually impaired persons can also connect to their country provided that they can read Braille, emphasized Mr Gobin. Therefore, LLTF and NGOs will continue to provide training to the visually impaired and blind persons who are not yet conversant with Braille, he stated.

A symbolic distribution of 25 copies of the Braille version of the Constitution to NGOs, municipal and district councils and students was also carried out on this occasion.

Loïs Lagesse Trust Fund

The Loïs Lagesse Trust Fund (LLTF) was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1983. Its main objective is to provide education, training and employment to blind and visually impaired persons. LLTF trains blind people in mobility and orientation and provides such facilities as white canes, large prints, talking library and IT facilities. It also runs a workshop where artisans with visual impairments perform rattan works.