MAURITANIA: 'Slavery bill is weak'

Submitted by crinadmin on Mon, 09/07/2007 - 06:32

[9 July 2007] - A new bill in Mauritania making slavery punishable by up to 10 years in prison is inadequate, says a lobbying group.

Anti-Slavery International welcomed the Mauritanian government's initiative but said the proposed law was too weak.

Slavery has existed for centuries in Mauritania. A presidential decree abolished it in 1981, but no criminal laws were passed to enforce the ban.

This meant slavery continues as before and a huge effort is still needed to eradicate the practice, the group says.

"Unfortunately the proposed bill only defines an element of the practice in Mauritania," spokeswoman Romana Kacchioli told the BBC Network Africa programme

It does not cover contemporary aspects of slavery, such as forced marriage, indentured labour or debt bondage, she said.

"The bill so far is rather weak."

She said they and Mauritanian campaign group SOS Slavery were lobbying the government to strengthen the definition.

Any new legislation should punish slavery by up to 30 years in prison and provide for reparation payments to the victims, she said.

Mauritania's newly elected President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi promised to "permanently" eradicate slavery during his campaign.

Slavery, child labour and trafficking in Mauritania

UNICEF's State of the World's Children Report 2005 found that 10 precent of children in the age group 5 to 14 were involved in child labour.

The US Dept. of Labor's 2003 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labour reported that following the 1981 abolition, due to the lack of economic and social opportunities for former slaves, their children were at risk of abject poverty. This may have served as an
impetus for child labour.

The US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2007 found that Mauritania is a source and destination country for children trafficked for the purpose of forced labor. Some rural Mauritanian families, send their sons to work, study, and live with a marabout (religious master).

Talibes, as these boys are locally known, sometimes beg in the streets for up to 12 or more hours a day.

Girls are reportedly trafficked from the rural areas or neighbouring Mali for forced domestic servitude in wealthy urban homes.

Further information

Mauritania