Slavery in Mauritania

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Slavery has been called "deeply rooted" in the structure of the northwest African country of Mauritania and estimated to be "closely tied" to the ethnic composition of the country, although it has also been estimated that "Widespread slavery was traditional among ethnic groups of the largely nonpastoralist south, where it had no racial origins or overtones; masters and slaves alike were black",^[1] despite the cessation of slavery across other African countries and an official ban on the practice since 1905.^[2]

The French colonial administration declared an end to slavery in Mauritania in 1905.^[3] Mauritania ratified in 1961 the Forced Labour Convention, having already enshrined abolition of slavery, albeit implicitly, in its 1959 constitution.^[1] In 1981, Mauritania became the last country in the world to officially abolish slavery,^[4] when a presidential decree abolished the practice. However, no criminal laws were passed to enforce the ban.^[4][5][6] In 2007, under international pressure, the government passed a law allowing slaveholders to be prosecuted.^[4]

Despite the official abolition of slavery, the 2018 Global Slavery Index estimated the number of slaves as 90,000 (or 2.1% of the population),^[7][8] a reduction from the 155,600 reported in the 2014 index in which Mauritania ranked 31st of 167 countries by total number of slaves and first by prevalence, with 4% of the population. The Mauritanian government ranks 121st of 167 in its response to all forms of modern slavery.^[9] In 2017, the BBC claimed that a total of 600,000 were living in slavery.^[10]

A November 2009 United Nations mission headed by UN special rapporteur Gulnara Shahinian evaluated slavery practices in Mauritania.^[11] In an August 2010 report to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the mission concluded that "despite laws, programmes and difference of opinion with regard to the existence of slavery in Mauritania, ... de-facto slavery continues to exist in Mauritania."^[12]

While other countries in the region have people in "slavelike conditions", the situation in Mauritania is "unusually severe" according to African history professor Bruce Hall,^[4] and consists largely of black Mauritanians held by Arab masters.^[13]

The Mauritanian government's official position is that slavery is "totally finished ... all people are free."^[14] According to abolitionist Abdel Nasser Ould Ethmane, many Mauritanians believe that talk of slavery "suggests manipulation by the West, an act of enmity toward Islam, or influence from the worldwide Jewish conspiracy."^[4] Some human-rights groups claim that the government may have jailed more anti-slavery activists than it had imprisoned slave owners.^[15] Only one person, Oumoulmoumnine Mint Bakar Vall, has been prosecuted for owning slaves. She was sentenced to six months in jail in January 2011.^[16]

Academics Ahmed Meiloud and Mohamed El Mokhtar Sidi Haiba have criticized accusations of slavery in Mauritania alleged by anti-slavery organizations and writers as exaggerated with a lack of statistical sources and factual errors.^[1]