Mauritania

Making love a crime: Criminalization of same-sex conduct in Sub-Saharan Africa

Published by on June 25, 2013

Amnesty International 25 June 2013 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report provides an analysis of the legal environment and wider context of human rights violations against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) individuals in sub-Saharan Africa. Recent years have seen increasing reports of people being harassed, marginalized, discriminated against and attacked because of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. This is occurring in countries whose legal systems still condone the criminalization of consensual same-sex behaviour, and in countries where the police and justice systems are failing to prevent these crimes from happening. The continued criminalization of consensual same-sex Read the full article…

Mauritania: Amnesty International Annual Report 2013

Published by on May 23, 2013

Amnesty International 23 May 2013 The authorities severely restricted freedom of expression, assembly and association. Protesters marched throughout the year, demanding the departure of President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. The authorities continued to threaten anti-slavery activists. Former Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi was arrested and extradited to Libya, where he could face the death penalty. At least six people were sentenced to death. Access the full report here.

Mauritania: Freedom in the World 2013

Published by on May 9, 2013

Freedom House 9 May 2013 Legislative elections planned for March 2012 were postponed several times during the year, with the political opposition requesting that they be held only after the implementation of reforms ensuring fair elections. In October, President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was shot—allegedly accidentally—by members of a military patrol, and sustained minor injuries. The authorities violently dispersed a number of protests throughout the year, including ones led by students and antislavery activists. Access the full report here.

Mauritania: 2012 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

Published by on April 19, 2013

US Department of State 19 April 2013 Mauritania is a highly centralized Islamic republic with a president as head of state governing under a constitution based on a combination of French civil and Sharia law. The Senate and National Assembly exercise legislative functions. Voters elect municipal councilors, who then vote to elect Senate members. The legislative bodies were weak relative to the executive. The election of Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz as president in 2009 ended a political crisis caused by Aziz’s 2008 coup d’état against then president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi. International observers declared the 2009 presidential election to be Read the full article…

Mauritania: military regime parading as democracy

Published by on October 23, 2012

The Guardian Boubacar N’Diaye 23rd October 2012 While many of the details of the shooting remain unknown, and some accounts are contradictory, for those who have followed Mauritania‘s politics since August 2005, it was only a matter of time before another attempt on his life was made. It certainly won’t be the last either. Since he overthrew the country’s only democratically elected president in August 2008, and succeeded in getting himself ‘elected’ in 2009, former army General Abdel Aziz seems to have gone out of his way to invite opposition. Volatile regional politics and (in)security, a dangerously unsettled domestic political and Read the full article…

Mauritania: Prisoners subject to enforced disappearance

Published by on September 26, 2012

Amnesty International (and others) 26 September 2012 AI Index: AFR 38/008/2012 Mauritania: the families of 14 prisoners subjected to enforced disappearance for over a year have the right to know their relatives’ whereabout. It has now been over a year since fourteen men convicted of terrorism and in prison in Nouakchott, Mauritania, have been victims of enforced disappearance. They were transferred from the central prison to an unknown location on 23 May 2011. Since then, their families have not seen them in spite of repeatedly asking the authorities to reveal their place of detention. Human rights organisations, both in Mauritania Read the full article…

Mauritania: Amnesty International Annual Report 2012

Published by on May 24, 2012

Amnesty International Annual Report 2012 - Mauritania 24 May 2012, available at UNHCR RefWorld Amnesty International Annual Report 2012 - Mauritania Head of state: General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz Head of government: Moulaye Ould Mohamed Laghdaf Death penalty: abolitionist in practice Population: 3.5 million Life expectancy: 58.6 years Under-5 mortality: 117.1 per 1,000 Adult literacy: 57.5 per cent Security forces used excessive and lethal force, including against protesters; one youth was killed by gunfire. Amid marches against the national census, protesters were arrested and sentenced to prison terms. The government clamped down heavily on suspected acts of terrorism. The whereabouts Read the full article…

Mauritania: group warns Mauritania against violence

Published by on September 29, 2011

News24 29 September 2011 Dakar - The African Encounter for the Defence of Human Rights (Raddho) on Thursday urged Mauritania’s government to opt for dialogue over a census under way and to reject “blind police violence”. One man has been killed and at least 15 others have been injured, according to Mauritanian rights groups, in southern Mauritania since September 24 during clashes between police and black opponents of the census. Raddho, which is based in Dakar, said in a statement that it was “very preoccupied by the clashes between Mauritanian security forces and black Mauritanian demonstrators of the ‘Don’t Touch Read the full article…

Mauritania: Amnesty International Submission for the UN Human Rights Council

Published by on April 12, 2010

Amnesty International Submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review: 9th Session of the UPR Working Group of the Human Rights Council 12th April 2010 In this submission, Amnesty International provides information under sections B, C and D, as stipulated in the General Guidelines for the Preparation of Information under the Universal Periodic Review. Amnesty International notes rights protected in Mauritania’s Constitution and treaties to which Mauritania is a party, and describes concerns in relation to serious human rights violations committed by the security forces, including excessive use of force; torture and ill-treatment; arbitrary arrest, violation of migrants’ rights, prison conditions, Read the full article…