The Blending of Retributive and the Restorative Justice Approaches to Combat Domestic Violence: The Case of Mauritius
KOODORUTH Ibrahim

Abstract
Domestic violence has a significant impact on the health and well-being of women and is a flagrant transgression of the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The criminalization of domestic violence using a retributive justice approach is not bringing the intended outcomes. Research carried out in the late 1990’s has indicated the potential of using the restorative approach to address the prevalence of domestic violence. The aim of this paper is to analyse the approaches used in Mauritius to combat domestic violence. It shows that in a first instance Mauritius had established coordinated community response initiatives (CCRIs) together with the implementation of a restitutive approach to deal with the issue. However, with the implementation of the Victim Empowerment and Abuser Rehabilitation Policy (VEARP) framework in the workplace, stakeholders have operationalised the concurrent use of the retributive and the restorative approaches to combat domestic violence.

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