Mauritania

Country Profile

There were no significant changes in the human rights situation in Mauritania during the year.

Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including unjustified arrests of journalists and enforcement of a criminal blasphemy law to limit expression; substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association; serious government corruption; extensive gender-based violence, including domestic or intimate partner violence, sexual violence, female genital mutilation/cutting, and other forms of such violence; laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct between adults, which were not enforced; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons; and the existence of the worst forms of child labor.

The government took steps to identify, investigate, prosecute, and punish officials who may have committed abuses, but some officials acted with impunity. Civil society organizations objected to the scant number of indictments handed down by authorities.

Cases

Released

Image Biram Dah Abeid