The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child considered a communication concerning child slavery and held Mauritania accountable for multiple violations of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. The Committee is an African Union body set up to protect children’s rights across the region.
The government of Mauritania was asked to report back to the Committee on all measures taken to implement the decision within 180 days from the date of receipt of the Committee’s decision. As of this writing, the government has not reported back to the Committee.
Also, the Supreme Court of Mauritania had not taken into account the Committee’s decision and had affirmed the lower court decisions granting very lenient sentences to those prosecuted for the enslavement of Said and Yarg.
MRG plans to attend the upcoming Committee session in October 2018 to engage in implementation-related advocacy. Moreover, MRG will disseminate the decision amongst the local populace, and hold discussions with community leaders to create awareness of the rights upheld by the judgment. (Interview with MRG representative, 25 July 2018).
This landmark decision has the potential to bring positive change for Said and Yarg as well as thousands of other child victims of slavery in Mauritania.
The prohibition against slavery is one of the clearest dictates of human rights. Nevertheless, the ILO estimates there to be 40 million slaves across the world today. Of these, approximately 5.5 million are children. This data represents a clear indictment of the ineffective implementation of human rights law. The Committee’s ruling is particularly important because it emphasizes that states are not merely responsible for providing formal legal protection. In addition, states must ensure effective implementation of laws that safeguard human rights. Bridging the gap between norms and practice is essential to fulfilling the transformative promise of human rights.
The Committee case followed the first successful domestic prosecution of individuals under the 2007 Act in Mauritania. While the sentencing and judicial process at the domestic level were inadequate, commentators hope that the regional decision will influence anti-slavery cases in the country and beyond. Indeed, as a MRG briefing reports, in the months following the Committee’s ruling two individuals were sentenced to 10 and 20 years respectively for slavery offenses in another case. To date, these are the strongest sentences ever imposed for the crime of slavery in Mauritania.
The Committee’s decision illustrates issues of multiple or intersectional discrimination. Although the subject of intersectionality is not addressed expressly in the decision, the ruling brings to light how discrimination is experienced more severely or in a unique way due to overlapping factors, including poverty, age and ethnicity (the boys belonged to the Haratine ethnic group, who, as noted above, have historically been victims of slavery in Mauritania). This case, especially given the structural remedies it provides, represents a critical step forward towards eradicating the pervasive practice of child slavery in Mauritania, and one hopes, across jurisdictions.
For their contributions, special thanks to ESCR-Net members: Dullah Omar Institute, Minority Rights Group International and Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) at Northeastern University.
Last updated on 30 July 2018
Minority Rights Group International
SOS-Esclaves
Anti-Slavery International