Mauritania: Human Rights Council Reviews Mauritania

The Human Rights Council meets on 9 November 2010 to proceed with the Universal Periodic Review of Libya. Alkarama has presented a report in this context.
- Mauritania's National Report
- Report of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Mauritania
- Summary by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of NGO submissions

The recently passed anti-terrorism legislation remains particularly worrying, since it contains serious challenges to human rights, even though the country has ratified most international agreements protecting key public and individual freedoms. Article 80 of the Constitution expressly provides for their primacy over domestic law.

Arbitrary detention in Mauritania exists in several forms: custody and preventive detention are sometimes extended beyond the statutory time limits; persons are detained despite having been released by a court order or having served their sentence.

Those arrested for political reasons are often tortured during police custody, with no possibility of contact with the outside world. Suspects are taken to the army General Staff headquarters or unofficial places such as private villas to be tortured.

The situation in prisons is particularly disturbing: there are overcrowded buildings and dirty, cramped cells that are not properly ventilated. Detainees lack food and health care, and are regularly abused.

Alkarama's recommendations:

1. Comply with obligations under international instruments on human rights which Mauritania has signed up to. In particular, endorse the Constitutional council's rejection of provisions contrary to the Constitution which were introduced in the antiterrorism bill.

2. Ensure the principle of separation of powers and the independence of justice by completely eliminating any interference by the executive in judicial affairs.

3. End torture and inhuman and degrading treatment; investigate allegations of torture, prosecute and convict those responsible for these acts and compensate victims; incorporate the crime of torture into domestic law as defined by the Article 1 of the Convention against Torture and impose appropriate penalties to punish offenders.

4. Prohibit the use of incommunicado detention; release those detained illegally or in violation of rules of criminal procedure, bring all the country's places of detention under the control of the judicial authorities, and implement a system of independent control over all prisons, ensuring that inmates enjoy humane conditions of detention.

5. Ensure the effective implementation of all laws relating to the abolition of slavery and the suppression of human trafficking.