08/22/2012

Mauritania silences critics against slavery!

International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition (August 23rd):

Brahim Ebeid member of the IRA; © Kaan Orhon/STP

On the occasion of the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition (on August the 23rd), the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) accuses Mauritania of contributing to the persistence of slavery in the country by arbitrarily silencing slavery's critics. Seven members of the Mauritanian NGO "Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement "(IRA) are currently facing a court procedure for allegedly endangering state security. "The Mauritanian government systematically intimidates slavery-abolitionists and treats them like terrorists," criticizes the Society for Threatened Peoples. "So they are deliberately hindered in fighting against slavery." There are still up to 500,000 slaves in the West African country.

The commitment to bring and end to slavery in Mauritania in 2012 has also suffered other setbacks. More than once, the state's President Ould Abdel Aziz publicly denied that there are still people being kept as slaves in his country. Furthermore – after the Mauritanian Supreme Court has overturned a court judgment against a slave-holder – all attempts to bring slaveholders to justice seem to have failed. "The slaves' trust in the independence of the judiciary is broken so that many of them are discouraged to try and seek justice," the STP states.

Instead of trying to support the struggle against slavery and to assist former slaves as far as possible, the Mauritanian Government silences anybody who discusses the taboo topic. "It's a throwback to the politics of the 80s and 90s, when interviews with foreign media on the subject of slavery were sufficient to sentence a human rights activist to several months in prison," criticized the STP. "So now the International Community must remind Mauritania that it is not sufficient to just abolish slavery by means of a law. A crucial factor lies in the progress regarding the emancipation of the slaves and – very important – more emphasis on the inclusion of the freed slaves in the Mauritanian society."

The International Day for the Rememberance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition was proclaimed by the UNESCO in 1998 and is celebrated annually on August the 23rd.