First Independent Mena Newspaper
After years of fighting for their rights despite crackdown and imprisonment, members of Mauritania’s leading anti-slavery NGO, the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA) are preparing their participation in local elections to make their voice heard. Led by recipient of UN human rights prize in 2013, Biram Ould Dah Ould Abied, IRA is not recognized […]
U.N. human rights officials condemned the systematic oppression endured by anti-slavery activists in Mauritania who have been handed a 15-year jail sentence. “The (Mauritanian) government is hostile to civil society groups that criticize its policies, especially to groups like IRA, whose members are drawn from the Haratin minority and advocate for an end to slavery,” […]
The United States has recently condemned in strong terms the imprisonment and the torture endured by anti-slavery activists in Mauritania. The US condemnation came after a court in Mauritania handed 13 members of the slavery abolitionist movement (known by its acronym IRA) sentences ranging from three to 15 years. “The United States is gravely concerned […]
A group of 17 NGOs including Amnesty International Wednesday called for the immediate release of two Mauritanian anti-slavery activists arrested one year ago and handed a two-year prison sentence by a Mauritanian court. “Mauritania must immediately set free the two anti-slavery activists who have been in custody for one year while one of them is […]
Mauritanian Parliament has passed a new anti-slavery law which criminalizes “10 forms of slavery”, including forced marriage and other controversial social practices such as handing a woman over to another man without her consent after the death of her husband. Mauritania abolished slavery in 1981, but human rights activists say the practice is still alive. […]