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1. Requisitioning of persons. The Committee notes with satisfaction that Ordinance No. 62-101 of 26 April 1962 empowering local chiefs to take certain measures necessary for the security of the State or the maintenance of public order, which gave local chiefs very broad powers to requisition persons, has been repealed by Act No. 2005-016 of 27 January 2005.

2. The issue of the vestiges of slavery in Mauritania and the resulting practices of forced labour has been the subject of attentive examination by the Committee of Experts and by the Committee on the Application of Standards of the International Labour Conference for several years. In this respect, the Committee notes the discussion held on the subject of the application of the Convention by Mauritania in the Committee on the Application of Standards in June 2005, following which the Conference Committee considered that, having taken into account the conflicting information on the persistence of the practices of forced labour and slavery, a fact-finding mission should be undertaken and should review the effective application of national legislation. The Government accepted this proposal and a mission visited Mauritania from 13 to 20 May 2006. The Committee notes the mission’s report, and particularly its conclusions and recommendations, which were forwarded to the Government in August 2006. The Committee also notes the Government’s report received in the Office on 12 October 2006, which updates the report received previously in 2005. It further notes that, in a communication received by the Office on 29 November 2006, the Government indicated that the recommendations contained in the mission’s report “should be taken into account in the national strategy to combat the vestiges of slavery”.

(a)   Acknowledgement of the existence of the vestiges of slavery
and the Government’s commitment to combat them

The Committee notes the mission’s indication in the conclusions of its report that “the Government considers that there still exist vestiges of slavery resulting essentially from the endemic poverty” and that it observed that “the statements made by the Mauritanian authorities on this issue had evolved and the matter was no longer taboo”. In this respect, the Committee notes with interest from the information contained in the mission’s report, as well as that provided in the Government’s report, that the Government has taken a number of measures which illustrate its commitment in this field:

–      recognition of the associations that are most active in the aspects of human rights relating to forced labour, such as SOS-Slaves and the Mauritanian Human Rights Association (AMDH);

–      discussion of the problem of slavery and its vestiges during national dialogue days in October 2005. The issue was included in the recommendations emerging from the dialogue days and it was recognized that measures should be taken in this field;

–      organization by the Ministry of Justice, on 24 March 2006, of a day of reflection on the ways and means of eradicating the vestiges of slavery in Mauritania, with the participation of members of the Government, civil society organizations, including human rights NGOs, ulemas, representatives of political parties, etc. The Committee notes that an Interministerial Committee was entrusted with examining the recommendations emerging from this day of reflection and proposed, in a communication adopted by the Council of Ministers on 12 July 2006, that “the Government solemnly and unequivocally reaffirms its will to intensify and adopt systematic measures to combat the vestiges of slavery until achieving their definitive and rapid eradication” and “the formulation, in the context of a participatory approach, of a national strategy to combat the vestiges of slavery”; and

–      adoption by the Council of Ministers in July 2006 of the Ordinance establishing the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH). This independent public institution will be granted administrative and financial autonomy and will be composed of members designated to represent institutions, occupational organizations and civil society, on the one hand, and members designated to represent administrative services, on the other. The Committee notes that the functions of the CNDH include “promoting awareness of human rights and combating all forms of discrimination and violations against human dignity, including (…) slave-like practices (…), by alerting public opinion through information, communication and education, and by calling on all press bodies”.

(b)   Applicable legislation

In its previous comments, the Committee noted that section 5 of the new Labour Code prohibits forced labour, defined as work or service which is exacted from a person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered herself or himself voluntarily, and that any violation of this prohibition is punishable by the penal sanctions established in Act No. 2003-025 of 17 July 2003 punishing the trafficking of persons. The Committee expressed its concern regarding the possible consequences in practice of the fact that the general prohibition of forced labour is contained in the Labour Code, while the penalties are set out in a specific law penalizing another offence.

The Committee notes that the objective of the fact-finding mission was to obtain information on the national legislation and review whether it is adequate and effectively applied to bring an end to the vestiges of slavery. The report indicates that the shortcomings of the legislation were emphasized by many of those interviewed by the mission, including the Minister of Justice, who recognized the need to clarify the legislation and emphasized the necessity of defining slave-like practices more precisely and establishing adequate penalties in the context of the reform of the Penal Code. In this respect, the Committee endorses the recommendations of the mission, which “considers that the definition of the elements constituting slave-like practices and their penalization would allow to strengthen the legal provisions”. The Committee hopes that, as recommended in the mission’s report, the Government will take the necessary measures to “adopt a text clearly penalizing slave-like practices and defining in precise terms their constituent elements so as to enable the judiciary to apply it easily” and to “include these juridical innovations in the general context of the current reform of the Penal Code”.

(c)   Effective application of the legislation

In its previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to provide information on the jurisdictions that are competent to receive complaints and the penalties imposed for violations of the prohibition of forced labour, including the number of complaints lodged and copies of the respective court decisions.

The Committee notes that, in its conclusions, the mission finds that “up to now, the national jurisdictions have never had to examine allegations relating to practices of forced labour or slavery. When investigations are conducted, the term slavery is never used to describe the facts, which excludes the possibility of legal proceedings being initiated on these grounds.” The report and the information provided by the Government in its report on the application of the Convention show that victims encounter difficulties in being heard and in asserting their rights both at the level of the public authorities and the judicial authorities.

However, the Committee notes that measures have been adopted in this field. Thus, the Committee notes the Circular of 2 January 2006 addressed by the Minister of the Interior to Walis, Hakems and local chiefs, following the recommendations adopted by the dialogue days on the process of democratic transition, when it was decided that measures were to be taken to combat the vestiges of slavery. In this Circular, the Minister called on these representatives of the State “to enforce the law, particularly with regard to the vestiges of the phenomenon of slavery”, to deal with cases which come to their knowledge “with the required rigour and to bring cases that lie within their competence to justice. In any event, the law remains the sole reference point in this regard.” The Committee also notes that the Minister of Justice indicated to the mission in this respect that he had personally issued instructions to the prosecution services to make on-the-spot visits when an allegation relating to the vestiges of slavery is brought to their knowledge and to investigate it.

With regard to the access of victims to justice, the Committee notes the adoption, on 26 January 2006, of Ordinance No. 2006-005 respecting legal assistance, the objective of which is to provide legal and judicial assistance to the most underprivileged categories of persons.

The Committee recalls that, under the terms of Article 25 of the Convention, States which ratify the Convention are under the obligation to ensure that the penalties imposed by law are really adequate and are strictly enforced. While aware of the difficulties faced by the judicial system and the reticence which may exist with regard to the issue of the vestiges of slavery, the Committee considers that it is important that the measures adopted by the Government to bring an end to the vestiges of slavery (in terms of awareness raising, poverty reduction, etc.) are based on a reliable judicial system capable of applying dissuasive penalties to perpetrators. The Committee therefore hopes that the Government will take the necessary measures to give effect to the recommendations of the mission calling upon the Government to “continue making every effort to ensure: that the competent authorities (prosecutors, magistrates and the police forces) order or undertake rapid and impartial investigations in the event of complaints relating to slavery and its manifestations; that the classification of the facts is not deceptive; that, where they are genuine, such cases are referred to the competent jurisdictions and treated as a priority, and that, where appropriate, the penalties applied are sufficiently dissuasive”.

(d)   National strategy to combat the vestiges of slavery

The Committee notes that the mission emphasizes in its report that problems related to slavery and its various vestiges “have a variety of causes which have their roots in the weight of tradition, culture and religious beliefs and are reinforced by the situation of economic dependence of the victims” and that “the Government has an essential role to play as a catalyst for change. It therefore has to adopt an active policy and adequate legislative measures.” The Committee notes that, since then, the Council of Ministers adopted, on 12 July 2006, the principle of the “formulation, in the context of a participatory approach, of a national strategy to combat the vestiges of slavery. This strategy, which will be subject to a continuous process of monitoring, will have the objective of identifying and proposing all measures conducive to eliminating the vestiges of slavery, particularly in the light of the recommendations made by the national dialogue days.” It also notes that an Interministerial Committee was established for this purpose in October 2006.

The Committee considers that, in the context of this strategy, it is important, as emphasized by the mission in its report, to have available “reliable information as a basis for assessing the scope of the phenomenon of slavery and its characteristics”. The absence of such data could “constitute an obstacle to the implementation of an effective policy to combat the phenomenon.” The Committee hopes that the Government will be able to conduct such a study with the technical assistance of the Office and of other international organizations which have indicated their interest in cooperating with the Government in this field. Such a study would offer better guidance for the action to be taken by the public authorities and would help in targeting the populations and geographical areas concerned.

In more general terms, the Committee requests the Government to provide detailed information in its next report on the implementation of the national strategy to combat the vestiges of slavery. It hopes that, when determining this strategy, the Government will take into account all the recommendations made by the mission, as it indicated in a communication sent to the Office in November 2006. The Committee considers in this respect that all the actors that have a role to play in combating these practices, including the social partners, the police and law enforcement agencies, the judicial system, the labour inspectorate and civil society, including religious authorities, should be stakeholders in this strategy. It also hopes that, among the measures to be adopted in the context of this national strategy, the Government will take into account the need to conduct awareness-raising activities at the national, regional and local levels targeted at all the actors referred to above. Similarly, poverty reduction programmes will need to be implemented in the framework of concerted action, specifically targeting the communities in which the phenomenon of the vestiges of slavery is known and persists, to prevent vulnerable persons becoming victims of these practices once again.