COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION CONCLUDES REVIEW OF REPORT OF MAURITANIA

MORNING


HR/CERD/99/40
6 August 1999




The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination concluded consideration this morning of a report of Mauritania on Government efforts to implement the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

Mohamed Salem Ould Merzoug, Mauritania’s Minister of Justice, responding to questions from Committee Experts, said, among other things, that it was a false assertion that Arabs enslaved Blacks in the country and that in fact there now was no slavery in Mauritania. He said that in the past, captured or abducted persons among the ranks of warring ethnic groups had served as slaves, but that slavery mainly had been practised by Europeans who had trafficked in persons of African origin.

Regis de Gouttes, the Committee Expert who served as country rapporteur on the report of Mauritania, said the Committee welcomed the dialogue with the Mauritanian Government delegation, which had shown a real will to implement the Convention. He praised Government efforts to construct a democratic society based on the rule of law and said measures taken to alleviate poverty were most welcome. However, he added, more needed to be done to eliminate exclusion and marginalisation of the Black community.

Also participating in the discussion were Committee Experts Agha Shahi, Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr and Eduardo Ferrero Costa.

The Committee will release its formal observations and recommendations on the report of Mauritania towards the end of its four-week session, which concludes 27 August.

As one of 155 States parties to the Convention, Mauritania is required to submit periodic summaries on measures taken to implement the international treaty.

When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m., it will consider the situation in Yugoslavia, particularly Kosovo, under its prevention, early warning and urgent-action procedures.

Discussion of report of Mauritania

Before the delegation of Mauritania provided responses to questions raised by Committee members, an Expert said the report contained extremely useful information on the political structure of the country, programmes for poverty alleviation, agrarian reforms and the establishment of human-rights institutions. The institutionalization of a multi-party political system represented real progress in Mauritania, the Expert said, pointing out that now there were 24 political parties and a dozen of non-governmental organizations active in the country -- a good indication of the emergence of civil society.

The Expert observed that Mauritania's judicial power was presided over by the country's Head of State, which was a deviation from the standard of the separation of power of a State. Such a state of affairs could amount to a concentration of power by the executive, which was conducive to a civilian dictatorship, though a regime elected democratically. In addition, the expert said that attention should be paid by the Government to redress grievances arising from racial discrimination.

Responding to queries put by Committee members, MOHAMED SALEM OULD MERZOUG, Mauritanian Minister of Justice, said the organization of the judiciary system had permitted the Head of the State to preside over the judiciary system. However, the independence of the judiciary was in no way violated by such an arrangement. It was incorrect to say the President would put pressure on the judiciary and so influence its decisions. Instead, the President served as a guarantor of the independence of the judiciary and the equality of citizens before the law. In addition, the country's Supreme Court had the same functions as in other, developed countries, with full independence.

Referring to allegations of unequal treatment of citizens of different ethnic or racial origin and imbalanced representation in the structure of the State, Mr. Ould Merzoug said the assertion was an unfounded and came from a lack of a thorough study of the Mauritanian reality. As a Black Mauritanian himself, he was saddened by allegation that Blacks were discriminated against by Arabs. All citizens, whatever their racial or ethnic origins, had the same destiny as Mauritanians. He said the country had developed humanely by strengthening national unity based on economic, social and cultural rights, and equality. The country also had cultivated a culture of citizenship, achieved through the pursuit and consolidation of the rule of law.

Concerning the structure of the country’s political parties, Mr. Ould Merzoug said their formation was based on national politics and not on regional or ethnic aspirations. As a result, all the political parties exercised their democratic rights on a scale beyond a kind of narrow regionalism.

Mr. Ould Merzoug said the population of Mauritania was estimated to be 2,350,000 in 1996. Insofar as population structure was concerned, the Mauritanian people consisted of an Arab majority, composed of Blacks and whites, and non-Arabic-speaking Pular, Soninké and Wolof groups. In 1979, long before the winds of democracy had blown through Africa, Mauritania had created a national language institute to promote the languages of the Pular, Soninke and Wolof in both written and spoken forms. By contrast, a few weeks ago, the Government of France had refused to sign a European convention designed to promote regional languages. The Government of Mauritania believed in the democratic principle of allowing people to be educated in their own languages, he said.

Refusing an allegation that the Mauritanian society was undergoing a process of Arabization, Mr. Ould Merzoug said the society was already Arab. Arabs constituted the majority of the population and there was no need to Arabize it, although the country guaranteed the rights of its ethnic minorities. The social stratification of Mauritanian society was far different from that of the Arab world, he added. Arabs in Mauritania had adopted the living conditions of Black Africans.

Mr. Ould Merzoug said that the establishment of the office of the Mauritanian Commissioner for Human Rights had coincided with the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1998. Its mandate varied from consideration of citizens’ to on the spot investigations of claims of human rights violations. The office also promoted national and international cooperation related to human rights, particularly involving implementation of international instruments to which Mauritania was a party. He recalled that last June, Mauritania had ratified the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

With regard to slavery, the Minister of Justice said it was a false assertion that Arabs enslaved Blacks in Mauritania. He said, in Africa where Arabs did not set foot, slavery used to be practised in the past. In the same manner, slavery had been practised in Mauritania in the past. However, slavery was mainly attributed to the Europeans who trafficked in persons of African origin for purposes of slavery. Slavery in Mauritania used to be the result of the rigid and vertically empowered structures of each ethnic group. The slaves were victims of abductions during wars between rival ethnic groups. Anyway, at present, slavery did not exist in Mauritania.

REGIS DE GOUTTES, the Committee Expert who served as country rapporteur on the report of Mauritania, said the report and the quality of the dialogue with the Government delegation had set a good example. He said he appreciated the historic and economic analyses provided by the delegation on all aspects of the problems faced by Mauritania.

Mr. de Gouttes said the dialogue had attested to a real will on the part of the Government to implement the Convention. The Government's efforts to construct a democratic society based on the rule of law also was laudable, as were measures taken to alleviate poverty. However, he said, more needed to be done to eliminate exclusion and marginalization of the Black community.