Attorney General, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Maneesh Gobin hosted a half-day awareness session. The initiative focused on the roles of Police Officers and Fire Fighters during emergencies.
The initiatives was launched on Monday Morning at the Metropolitan Division in Abercrombie. Some 600 newly recruited Police Officers and 80 Fire Officers, are attending the workshop, from 19 to 21 August 2024.
The workshop was organised by the Human Rights Division in collaboration with the Mauritius Police Force. Further, the Mauritius Fire and Rescue Service also assisted in the successful implementation of the workshop.
The aim of the workshop was to inform the participants of the initiative about their respective roles that they were expected to play. These included the need to provide humanitarian assistance and their civic responsibility towards society.
The objective  of the organization was to build awareness on their duties and the skills that they are expected to acquire to deal with any future challenges. Attorney General, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Maneesh Gobin delivered a brief address
During his keynote speech, Minister Gobin recalled that World Humanitarian Day is observed every year on August 19. The event seeks to honour and acknowledge the work of humanitarian workers.
Further, The Minister remarked that humanitarian workers deliver humanitarian aid in times of crisis, emphasising that crisis can be either man-made or natural.
As regard Mauritius, Minister Maneesh Gobin underlined that the country has recently faced different types of climate-change related crises, such as the recent La Poudrière Street flash flood and cyclone Belal.
During these crises, we needed to deliver humanitarian aid and required humanitarian assistance, which was mostly provided by Police officers and Fire Officers, he recalled. He thus dwelt on the need to train them in delivering humanitarian aid in difficult and challenging situations such as the lack of equipment and facing a hostile crowd.
On this score, he highlighted that the International Law provides for the protection of Humanitarian workers whenever and wherever they are in danger of facing an attack, during the delivery of aid.
Furthermore, Maneesh Gobin indicated that the Police Officers and Fire Officers will be trained to provide humanitarian aid not only in Mauritius, but also in case they may be called upon to serve in an international setup, under an international organisation.