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| غلاف التقرير وشعار المنظمة |
أعدت منظمة (وولك فري
فونداسيون) الاسترالية تقريرا يتضمن ترتيب الدول من حيث العبودية الحديثة ، وتعتبر
هذه المنظمة الاسترالية ناشطة في هذا المجال وتهتم أساسا كما نص تعريفها على إنهاء
حالة العبودية الحديثة من خلال تحديد البلدان والصناعات الأكثر مسؤولية عنها ،
تحديد وتنفيذ التدخلات مع الشركاء في تلك البلدان التي سيكون لها أكبر الأثر على إنهاء
هذا النمط من العبودية الذي يشمل الاتجار بالبشر والحرمان من الحقوق ومنع حرية
الحركة والتنقل الى أعمال أخرى أكثر دخلا،والحرمان من الحياة الكريمة.
وجاء في التقرير أن موريتانيا
تحتل المرتبة الأولى عالميا حيث يشير الى
أن تقديرات عدد المستعبدين ما بين 140ألف إلى 160 ألف شخص من مجموع السكان البالغ 3,8
مليون نسمة ونسبة مائوية بلغت 97,9 . رغم أن موريتانيا وقعت على أغلب الاتفاقيات
المجرمة لكل أشكال استغلال البشر مثل (الاتفاقية الخاصة بالرق، الاتفاقية الخاصة بالرق
التكميلية، بروتوكول الأمم المتحدة للاتجار بالبشر، اتفاقية العمل الجبري، اتفاقية
أسوأ أشكال عمل الأطفال، البروتوكول الاختياري لجنة حقوق الطفل بشأن بيع الأطفال)
وباستثناء اتفاقية العمل المنزلي.
ويضيف التقرير أن نسبة 20% من
الموريتانيين يعيشون حالة عبودية سواء تلك الوراثية أم تلك الناجمة عن العمل ، كما
أشار الى أن الناس هنا يمكن أن يتم بيعهم أو إهدائهم وخاصة النساء اللائي يغلب
عليهن العمل في المنزل في المناطق الحضرية و أعمال أخرى أشد خطورة في المناطق
الريفية كما قد يخضعن للاعتداء الجنسي من قبل أسيادهنن كما ان العبيد الذكور لا
يسمح لهم بامتلاك الاراضي وأن العبد اذا تزوج بإن المهر يأخذه السيد المالك
للمستعبدة.
وأوضح التقرير أيضا أن بعض
تعاليم الاسلام تستخدم لتبرير العبودية على الرغم من أن الكثير من الناس مدركين لحقيقة
أنه وفقا للشريعة الإسلامية ، لا يمكن لمسلم استعباد أخيه المسلم. كما أوضح
التقرير أن الضحايا يعانون من صعوبات شديدة في رفع قضاياهم أمام العدالة حيث عليهم
(الضحايا) إثبات الواقعة وهو أمر في غاية الصعوبة حسب التقرير نظرا للأمية التي
يعاني منها غالبيتهم.
وختم التقرير بمجموعة من
النقاط التي يجب على الحكومة الموريتانية اتباعها اذا كانت تسعى جادة للقضاء على
العبودية منها:
1- إجراء دراسة وطنية لجمع بيانات
أكثر دقة عن انتشار وطبيعة الأشكال القائمة من العبودية.
2- نشر تقرير سنوي حول الجهود المبذولة
والتقدم المحرز في عمل الوكالة الوطنية لمحاربة بقايا الرق ، والتكامل، و مكافحة الفقر.
3- التركيز على إزالة و معالجة
العوائق التي تحول دون الوصول إلى العدالة للضحايا، بما في ذلك السماح للمنظمات غير
الحكومية لمساعدة الضحايا على تقديم الشكاوى. .
4- التركيز على إنهاء إفلات
المجرمين من العقاب، من خلال التأكد من أن جميع حالات الرق يتم التحقيق.
5- إنشاء آلية لدعم الضحايا ، عن
طريق برامج إعادة الدمج . .
التقرير الكامل بالإنجليزية
Mauritanie
1. The problem
Mauritania
has the highest proportion of people in slavery in the world. According to one
NGO in Mauritania,
up
to 20 percent of the Mauritanian population is enslaved.2308 While not
identical to the Global Slavery
Index
estimated of prevalence, these two figures, in the absence of more precise
measurement, point
to
a growing consensus of high levels of enslavement in Mauritania.
Slavery
in Mauritania primarily takes the form of chattel slavery, meaning that
adults
and children in slavery are the full property of their masters who exercise
total
ownership over them and their descendants. Slave status has been passed
down
through the generations from people originally captured during historical
raids
by the slave-owning groups.31 People in slavery may be bought and sold,
rented
out and given away as gifts. Slavery is prevalent in both rural and urban
areas. It is reported that
women
are disproportionately affected by slavery; for example, they usually work
within the domestic sphere,
and
a high level of control is exercised over their movements and social
interactions. They are subject to
sexual
assault by their masters. Women’s roles include childcare and domestic chores,
but they may also herd
animals
and farm, as men in slavery do.32
Beyond
the context of private homes, it is reported that some boys, who have been sent
to attend Koranic
schools
to become talibes (students), have been forced into begging. Although the
scale of this problem is not
known,
it is thought to be quite significant; affecting local boys as well as boys
trafficked into Mauritania from
the
surrounding regions.33
It
is also reported that women have been subjected to forced marriage and sexual
exploitation, both within
Mauritania
but also in the Middle East.34
Slaves
are not permitted to have any possessions, as they are considered to be
possessions themselves.
As
such they are denied inheritance rights and ownership of land and other
resources. When an enslaved person
marries,
the dowry is taken by the ‘master’ and if they die their property can be
claimed by the ‘master’.35
Notable aspects of the problem
Mauritanian
society is made up of three main ethnic groups, commonly known as Black Moors
or Haratins,
Afro-Mauritanians,
and White Moors.
Haratins,
whose name literally means “ones who have been freed”, are descendants of the
Black Moors, the
historical
slave population (‘Haratin’ is not a term that is used by Haratin people use to
identify themselves
as
it can be discriminatory). The Haratins are understood to be the ‘property’ of
the White Moors, who are
a minority
in the country but wield disproportionate (majority) political and economic
power.36
Mauritania,
with understandings of race and class, as well as some religious teachings
being used to justify slavery.
Without
access to education or alternative means of subsistence, many believe that it
is God’s wish for them to be
slaves.37
As most people in slavery are kept illiterate and uneducated, they are unaware
of the fact that according
to
Islamic law, a Muslim cannot enslave a fellow Muslim. Compounding this, the
legal and policy framework to
protect
women’s rights in Mauritania is extremely deficient, with many discriminatory
laws. Indeed, according
to
the 2001 Family Code (Code du Statut personnel), women remain perpetual minors.
Harmful traditional
practices,
including early and forced marriages and female genital mutilation, are
commonplace. There is no
specific
law against violence against women and marital rape is not a crime. Although
Mauritania has ratified
the
Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW), it entered a
reservation
stating that only articles that comply with Sharia Law and the Mauritanian
Constitution would
be
applied. The Sharia Law and the Criminal Code currently pose grave violations
to women’s rights; for
instance,
women who are victims of rape can be prosecuted for the crime of Zina
(adultery).38
2. What is the government doing about it?
Mauritania
has ratified a number of key international treaties regarding modern slavery
but not the Domestic
Work
Convention. The ILO Committee of Experts has repeatedly expressed concern about
the situation in
Mauritania,
and has called on the Government to take steps including: adopt a comprehensive
strategy against
slavery;
ensure that victims can actually assert their rights and seek help; ensure that
authorities undertake
investigations
promptly; and ensure that prison sentences are actually imposed on
perpetrators.39
Slavery
has been prohibited by Mauritanian law
since
1961, when the Government redrafted
the
Constitution, following independence from
France,
and incorporated various principles
from
the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.
In 1981, after a coup d’état, Mauritania
again
declared slavery illegal, through Decree
No.
81234. However, no legislation was
introduced
to implement the Decree.40 It was
only
in 2003 that a law was passed against trafficking in persons,41 and four years
later, the 2007-048 law
provided
a new definition for slavery42 and attached to it a penalty of five to 10
years’ imprisonment and a
fine
for violations of the law. Taken together, these laws criminalise trafficking
in persons and most forms
of
slavery. The 2007-048 law provides for victim compensation and assistance for
those released from
slavery
and makes liable those who do not follow-up a denunciation of slavery to
sentencing and a fine.
This
includes police officers and chiefs who may be complicit to these crimes.43
There are some gaps in
Mauritania’s
criminal laws on modern slavery as some practices, including forced marriage
and debt-bondage,
are
not criminalised.
Despite
the existence of national laws, it is reportedly very difficult for victims of
slavery to seek access to
justice in
Mauritania. The burden of proof lies with the victim and investigations cannot
be pursued unless
This
is highly problematic in light of the fact that most victims are illiterate,
making it impossible to manage
the
paperwork. Victims of slavery often do not know about their rights and their
claim to protection from the
law.45
The Government provides no support for programmes to assist victims
to
file complaints of slavery.46 As many victims have been indoctrinated by
the
practice of intergenerational slavery, it is extremely difficult for them
to
pursue legal challenges against their ‘masters’ in court.47 These and other
difficulties
are reflected in low levels of investigations and prosecutions under
the
relevant laws.
In
2012, the ILO Committee of Experts referred to information from
the
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) that even though
several
victims had tried to take action against their ‘masters’, only one conviction
has been handed down in
November
2011 and the convicted offender was released on bail pending the appeal of this
sentence.48 The
appeal
has still not taken place at the time of writing (July 2013) and he remains at
liberty. The Government
is
known to have only investigated two cases in 2013.49
Beyond
information about the existence of national laws, very limited information is
available about the
Mauritanian
Government response to this issue. Information about the budget allocated by
the Government
to
supporting the eradication of slavery is unclear. According to one report,
the
Government allocated 1 billion ouguiyas (MRO) (approximately US
$3.3
million) to a National Programme for the Eradication of the Vestiges
of
Slavery in 2009,50 which focused on preventing slavery by improving
education
and health, and alleviating poverty. It did not focus on awarenessraising
or
efforts to combat the impunity of offenders, or protect victims.51
The
extent to which it was implemented is unclear, with no detailed results
having
been released,52 and the Programme has now been closed. The Programme was
replaced by a new
national
Agency against the Vestiges of Slavery, for Integration and against Poverty
(established in March
2013),
but no information has been published on its mandate or work plans. The likely
impact of this Agency
on
the practice of slavery is unclear, given its reported focus on poverty
alleviation without any focus on the
social
context that permits and fosters slavery.53
In
terms of measures to combat the impunity of offenders, there is no special law
enforcement unit, and
no
system in place to collect and record data concerning slavery.54 It is reported
that more than 500 law
enforcement
and judicial officials have participated in training on the implementation of
the anti-slavery law.
Mauritania
has a Labour Inspectorate but, in addition to being confronted with corruption,
the Inspectorate
does
not have the resources to carry out enough work to enforce the country’s labour
laws.
The
only victim protection mechanism in place in Mauritania is limited to child
victims. Delivered through
the
Government and NGOs, assistance takes the form of training and education within
child protection
centres,
with an effort to reintegrate children back into public schools. The Ministry
of Social Affairs,
Childhood
and the Family operate four National Centres for the Protection and Social
Integration of
Children.55
NGOs have noted that these centres are not fully functioning, due to a lack of
funding,56 and
it is
unknown how ma ny of the total number of children assisted are victims of
modern slavery (ninety children
received
services from the centres in 2012-13 according to the US TIP Report 2013).
In
2010, an office of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR)
opened
in Nouakchott. It has since focused on developing a ‘road map’ to ending
slavery and plans to work
with
the Government to implement the necessary steps. However, in
December
2012, the road map had not yet been finalised or published.57
While
there are recent examples of NGO and Government cooperation
on
this issue, cooperation with civil society on forced labour, trafficking
and
slavery is not institutionalised. Only the multi-stakeholder Child
Trafficking,
Smuggling and Labour Group includes NGOs and other
members
of the civil society in a systematic manner. There exists no involvement of
social partners.
Notable aspects of the response
As
noted above, in March 2013, the President of Mauritania established a new
agency to combat slavery, the
National
Agency to Fight against the Vestiges of Slavery, Integration, and Fight against
Poverty.58 This agency
has
the aim to tackle poverty, and to promote integration of refugees, with the aim
to end slavery through
abolishing
some of the factors pertaining to it. Further information on its mandate and
practical functioning
remain
to be observed.
3. What needs to happen?
Mauritania
should:
■■ Perform
a nationwide study to collect more precise data on prevalence and nature of
existing forms
of
slavery, as part of a larger focus on eradication.
■■ Publish
an annual report on efforts and progress made in the work of the National
Agency to Fight
against
the Vestiges of Slavery, Integration, and Fight against Poverty.
■■ Focus
on removing and addressing barriers to access to justice for victims, including
through allowing
NGOs
to assist victims to file complaints.
■■ Focus
on ending the impunity of offenders, through ensuring that all slavery cases
are investigated and
where
sufficient evidence, prosecuted.
■■ Clearly
mandate and task one central unit of law enforcement with responsibility for
investigating, and
reporting
quarterly on progress of investigations of slavery.
■■ Clearly
mandate and task one central unit of the prosecution service with
responsibility for prosecuting,
and
reporting quarterly on progress of prosecutions of slavery.
■■ Establish
a victim-support mechanism, with emergency shelter and assistance, legal
assistance and
reintegration
programmes.
■■ Ensure
existing poverty reduction strategies include a focus on enabling enslaved
people and former
slaves to
generate income independent from their former masters.
