Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1990
MAURITANIA
The Islamic Republic of Mauritania has been governed since
1978 by the Military Committee for National Salvation (CMSN).
Colonel Maaouya Quid Sid 'Ahmed Taya, President of the
Committee and Chief of State, assumed power in 1984 after the
bloodless ouster of the former president, Lt . Col. Mohamed
Khouna Ould Haidalla. All 18 members of the Military
Committee hold ministerial portfolios or occupy other key
military or government positions. The Committee functions
nominally as a legislative body under the direction of
President Taya, and the President, assisted by his Council of
Ministers and a few close advisers, wields executive power.
Political and opposition parties are prohibited in Mauritania.
Mauritanian security forces number about 16,000 and, in
addition to the regular armed forces, include the National
Guard, the Gendarmerie (a specialized corps of paramilitary
police), and the police. The Gendarmerie is directed by the
Ministry of Defense, while the National Guard and police come
under the Ministry of Interior. The security forces continued
to be responsible for widespread human rights abuse.
Mauritania continues to face massive economic and social
problems: drought, desertification, insect infestation, the
Western Sahara conflict, extensive unemployment, rapid
inflation, one of the highest per capita foreign debts in
Africa, minimal infrastructure, inadequate health and
education systems, and an exodus from rural areas. Although
rainfall levels have improved during the past 3 years, the
prior drought years forced large numbers of nomads into towns,
with a consequent weakening of traditional Maur nomadic
culture and a severe strain on government resources.
The human rights situation in Mauritania continued to
deteriorate in 1990. In the aftermath of the 1989 rioting,
tens of thousands of Senegalese citizens as well as
Pular-speaking Mauritanian citizens were extrajudicially
expelled to Senegal. According to the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) , as many as 45,000 of these
Mauritanian citizens remained encamped on the Senegalese side
of the border during 1990 and were not allowed to return by
the Mauritanian Government. During mid-October, however, the
UNHCR began a little-publicized program of repatriating
Mauritanians from Senegal for reunification with their
families in Mauritania. There were recurring incidents of
cross-border violence, as armed bands of expellees regularly
crossed the river from Senegal to carry out raids in
Mauritania. The Government reacted swiftly and harshly, and
security forces meted out severe punishment to anyone it
suspected of being involved with, or even sympathetic to, the
raiders. There were numerous credible reports of
extrajudicial killings, disappearances, and further
expulsions, particularly during the first 6 months of 1990.
These extrajudicial actions by government security forces
helped to create a climate of unbridled frontier justice in
parts of southern Mauritania in early 1990. In an attempt to
rein in the security forces, the Minister of Interior issued
instructions prohibiting abuses and threatened to discipline
violators. Some were transferred, but no other sanctions were
reported. Credible reports of unlawful detention and torture
surfaced during the year, and most other human rights,
including denial of fair public trial, freedom of expression,
association, and the right of citizens to change their
government remained tightly circumscribed. President Taya
released 11 Halpulaar prisoners from detention in
mid-September. However, well over 1,000 Halpulaar s and
Soninkes were arrested in late 1990 on questionable charges of
coup plotting.
RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Section 1 Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom from:
a. Political and Other Extrajudicial Killing
Government security forces engaged in widespread extrajudicial
killings of persons, particularly non-Hassaniya-speaking black
Mauritanians, suspected of being sympathetic to Mauritanian
refugees who crossed from Senegal into Mauritania to attack
military installations and villages and to seize property they
considered rightfully theirs. Although it is impossible to
determine how many black Mauritanians were summarily executed,
substantial numbers of victims were reported in almost every
town and village along the Senegal river. In April and May,
at least 15 civilians were extrajudicially killed by security
forces for suspected sympathy to the raiders in the regions of
Guidimaka and Brakna. Security forces also killed villagers
who refused to submit to soldiers' demands for food and
supplies. In May security forces killed two young boys who
refused to surrender their cow near Diagnily and later killed
a father and son near Maghama also for refusal to supply a cow
to the soldiers. Security forces also engaged in
indiscriminate shooting at unarmed villagers, such as the
killing by National Guardsmen of a Muslim religious leader at
Ngoral-Guidal as he emerged from bathing in a river. At
year's end, there were no reports of Government inquiries into
these incidents or any efforts to punish those responsible.
White and black Maurs in southern Mauritania used firearms
provided by the Government, ostensibly for self-defense
against cross-border raids, to attack unarmed non-Hassaniyaspeaking
blacks. On April 27, an armed group of black Maurs
attacked non-Hassaniya-speaking families near Sedelme,
Guidimaka, killing 14 persons. Also in April three 15-yearold
Peuhl shepherds were beaten to death by black Maurs in
Guidimaka. These bands reportedly acted with the tacit
approval, and in some cases active encouragement, of local
security forces (see also Section I.e.). There were no
reports of government investigation into these incidents by
the end of the year.
b. Disappearances
There were no confirmed incidents of disappearance in 1990.
People believed to have disappeared were subsequently
determined to have been extrajudicially killed or expelled.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Despite the Government's stated opposition to torture and
legal prohibition against its use, the security forces often
used harsh interrogation techniques against dissidents and
black Mauritanians, particularly in the southern regions along
the Senegal river. Many of the detainees arrested in November
(see Section l.d.) were also subjected to harsh interrogation
techniques. The forms of torture included beatings and denial
of water and food. The Imam from Gourel Guida, detained after
criticizing the Government for arbitrary arrests and
extrajudicial punishment, died as a result of lengthy torture
by the Gendarmerie. On July 21, a Halpulaar herd owner was
taken into custody by the Gendarmerie near M'bout and
subsequently beaten to death. He was suspected of having sold
some of his livestock in Senegal. A Halpulaar shepherd died
as a result of torture by security forces near Selibaby Founti
in May. There were no known investigations into incidents of
torture by the end of 1990.
There were also reports of abuse and rape of women by security
forces. In June the mayor of Wompou was severely beaten by
six soldiers after he intervened to prevent the soldiers from
absconding with young women from the village. The Government
subsequently arrested the six soldiers and publicly promised
to discipline them appropriately, although no announcement
about punishment of the six had been made by year's end.
d. Arbitrary Arrest, Detention, or Exile
Although Mauritanian law assures expeditious arraignment and
trial, access to legal counsel, and the right of appeal, these
rights are frequently not observed, particularly in cases of
political dissidents or persons suspected on national security
grounds. They are somewhat more often observed in ordinary
criminal cases. The courts must review the legality of a
person's detention no more than 72 hours after his or her
arrest. Many people are detained without charge and held
incommunicado such as Traore Lad j i , a prominent Mauritanian
economist, who was detained by the Government from October
1989 to September 1990. He was held incommunicado, was never
charged, brought to trial, or given access to legal counsel.
On March 17, former Foreign Minister Hamdi Ould Mouknass was
arrested by the police and held incommunicado for
approximately 1 week, before being released. Mouknass was
never charged, tried, or given access to legal counsel, and no
reason for his detention was given. In March security
officials detained at least 20 prominent Halpulaars in
Nouakchott suspected of involvement with an illegal Halpulaar
dissident organization. At least two were released 1 or 2
days later. The fate of the others remained unknown at the
end of the year. In late November, the Government began
arresting non-Hassaniya-speaking black Mauritanians in the
military as well as civilian sectors. By the end of the year,
between 1,000 and 2,000 persons had been arrested. All were
held incommunicado. There were persistent reports that some
persons had been tortured to death or were secretly executed
without trial by government security forces. The Government
alleges that those arrested had been involved in a plot to
assassinate key officials and to commit acts of sabotage.
Despite promises to respect due process, by year's end the
Government had not pressed any charges or taken specific steps
to bring those in detention to trial.
There were also widespread arrests and lengthy extrajudicial
detentions by the police in Rosso. Mamadou Fassa was taken
into custody in early June and held for several weeks before
being released. The Imam of the mosque of Medina Trois in
Rosso was similarly held incommunicado for an extended period
before being expelled to Senegal in July. Three Halpulaar
were detained by Rosso police in mid-May and expelled to
Senegal in mid-June. The police in Rosso released a number of
political detainees—perhaps as many as 40—unconditionally in
early September.
There were multiple reports of arrests, intimidation,
prolonged detention, and expulsion committed by security
forces in several other river communities, including Boghe,
Kaedi , Djeol, and Maghama . There were also several reports of
a secret off-limits detention camp in a remote area some 20
kilometers south of Aleg, in which suspected dissidents were
held without trial for extended periods of time. The
Government reportedly closed this camp and released all its
detainees in early September.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
There are three legal systems in Mauritania: the Shari'a, the
special courts, and the State Security Court. While the
judiciary is nominally independent, many observers believe
that judges take their cue from the Government when sentencing
opponents of the regime. The legal system functions primarily
under the Shari'a (Islamic law) put in place during the
Haidalla regime. The Ministry of Justice administers the
Shari'a and selects judicial personnel. The Taya
administration has halted the use by Islamic judges of extreme
physical punishments, such as amputations, and is also slowly
eliminating a number of unqualified Shari'a judges who were
appointed during the Haidalla years. Judges now cannot be
tenured before they have completed 7 years of service.
Commercial and banking offenses, traffic violations that cause
bodily harm, and offenses against the security of the State
fall under the jurisdiction of the special courts, which
render judgments on the basis of laws modeled after French
law. While trials in the ordinary courts are public, the
State Security Court, which tries offenses against state
security, may conduct secret trials.
All defendants, regardless of the court, have the legal right
to be present with legal counsel during the proceedings. If
necessary, the accused is provided counsel at public expense.
Defendants may confront witnesses and present evidence. They
may appeal the sentences of the ordinary courts but not those
of the State Security Court.
The right to a fair public trial continued to be severely
abused. Severe reprisals by government security forces were
carried out in southern Mauritania during the first 6 months
of 1990 without any recourse to judicial proceedings.
Security forces imposed extreme punishments on their own
accord, without any legal authorization or restriction.
Despite the Government's categorical denial that extrajudicial
expulsions had resumed, during the first 6 months of the year
as many as 3,000 non-Hassaniya-speaking blacks were expelled
extrajudicially or fled out of fear of arbitrary action by the
security forces or armed Maurs. Mauritanian law specifies
that all persons, including foreigners, have the right to
their property and possessions, and can be deprived of them
only by a court decision. Nonetheless, in many instances
security forces randomly apprehended people, took them to
border crossings, and sent them across to Senegal without any
official processing. Even those carrying appropriate
Mauritanian identification were expelled; many were stripped
of their belongings and documentation, and many were forced
across the river at gunpoint. Those who fled or were expelled
were primarily non-Hassaniya-speaking Maur itanians
,
particularly Halpulaars, and, to a much lesser degree, other
black African ethnic groups.
L
In at least two instances, entire villages crossed the river
into Senegal. In May the villages of Gourel Mamodou and
Mbone, each with roughly 400 residents, moved to Senegal.
Their flight was prompted by disappearances, especially of
young women and children, and by summary executions by
authorities. Several thousand non-Hassaniya-speaking blacks
reportedly fled to Mali during the year for similar reasons.
The Government contended that many, if not all of the persons
who fled or were expelled, were in fact Senagalese nationals,
and that their Mauritanian identity documents were fradulent.
By the end of the year, the Government had failed to set up
procedures to permit access to the courts by expellees who
wished to obtain confirmation of their citizenship and the
right to return home. A small number of people were allowed
to return, beginning in September apparently as a result of
informal arrangements with security forces and the personal
intervention of government officials. In addition, the UNHCR
was given authorization in October to begin quietly
repatriating Mauritanians from Senegal in order to reunite
them with their families in Mauritania. This operation
resulted in the repatriation of perhaps 100 to 200
Mauritanians and, although intermittenly interrupted, was
still continuing at year's end. The number of cross-border
raids by expelled Mauritanians reportedly decreased toward the
end of 1990. There was a corresponding decline in reprisals
by government security forces.
f. Arbitrary Interference with Privacy, Family, Home, or Correspondence
Under Mauritanian law, judicial warrants are required to
perform home searches. This requirement is often ignored in
practice in "national security" cases. There were also
continuing reports of government surveillance of suspected
dissidents, as well as intimidation and harassment of
Pular-speaking black Mauritanians in the Senegal River Valley.
Section 2 Respect for Civil Liberties, Including:
a. Freedom of Speech and Press:
There are no legal guarantees of freedom of speech and press
and both are severely restricted in practice. Mauritanians
criticize government policies only in conversations with
friends and relatives. Military personnel are under tight
surveillance, and views expressed to military colleagues in
private that could be construed as even mildly critical of the
Government are likely to cause intense interrogation by
military security officers. The Government reacts quickly to
any public comments it thinks pose a threat to the security of
the State, particularly, any expression of ethnic
dissatisfaction, or criticism of the Government's ethnic
policies .
The Government owns and operates Mauritania's only daily
newspaper and the radio and television stations. During the
past 3 years the Government allowed limited criticism of its
policies, within the context of interviews with government
officials. In early 1988, the Government authorized the
publication of two privately owned monthly magazines,
Mauritanie Demain and L ' Evenement . These publications
periodically carried articles on mildly controversial social
issues but refrained from any direct criticism of the
Government. Both practiced self-censorship and, in part due
to financial constraints, reach a very limited audience. In
February the Government disbanded a student law club at the
University of Nouakchott and questioned its members after a
heated and frank discussion of Government ethnic and human
rights policies occurred at a meeting sponsored by the club.
Some members of the panel, prominent attorneys and academics,
were also called to discuss the incident with the Minister of
the Interior.
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association
Although Mauritanian law guarantees the rights of assembly and
association, since the 1978 coup the Government has banned all
political movements and prohibited meetings of a political
nature. All groups must be registered with the Minister of
Interior. The Government does occasionally permit
demonstrations by groups for purposes of which it approves,
e.g., in August in Nouakchott it allowed a small demonstration
of popular support for the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
c. Freedom of Religion
Islam is the official religion of Mauritania. Virtually all
citizens are Muslim. Mauritanian Muslims are prohibited from
entering non-Islamic houses of worship and from converting to
another religion. Proselytizing by non-Muslims and the
construction of Christian churches and other non-Islamic
houses of worship are prohibited. The Roman Catholic
community in Mauritania has five churches, which operate
freely as long as they restrict their services to resident
foreigners.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
Traditionally, there have been few restrictions on movement
within Mauritania, where nomadism has long been a way of
life. Local authorities imposed and enforced at their own
initiative dusk-to-dawn curfews in some villages along the
Senegal river boundary.
Since 1985 Mauritanians no longer need exit visas to travel
abroad, although there were recurrent reports of some persons
being denied passports for unexplained, and possibly
political, reasons. The price of a new passport jumped to
about $125 in 1990, effectively rendering a passport
unaffordable for most Mauritanian citizens.
As many as 105,000 displaced persons arrived in Mauritania
from Senegal during April and May 1989. As many as an
additional 15,000 refugees from Mali fleeing Halpulaar-related
ethnic violence entered Mauritania during the early months of
1990. Despite limited resources, the Mauritanian Government
continued to assist all refugees from both Senegal and Mali.
The Government also permitted the UNHCR and the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to establish temporary
offices in Nouakchott to provide aid to displaced persons.
One ICRC delegate remained at the beginning of 1990 to wind
down the ICRC operation. The ICRC office in Nouakchott was
subsequently closed. Mauritania continues to be covered by
the ICRC Regional Delegation in Tunisia for periodic visits to
prisons. There were no reports of the forceable return of
refugees to Senegal or to Mali.
As a result of the ongoing conflict in neighboring Western
Sahara between Morocco and the Polisario Front, a small number
of refugees from the Western Sahara have settled in Nouadhibou
and other northern towns and have been successfully absorbed
into Mauritanian society.
Section 3 Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens
to Change Their Government
Citizens of Mauritania do not have the means to change their
government through democratic means. All political power
rests in the hands of the military regime. The Military
Committee for National Salvation (CMSN) remains the "custodian
of the nation's sovereignty," and all executive and
legislative functions reside with the Committee. Membership
is limited to military officers, who occupy ministerial
positions or important military and security posts. The CMSN
is comprised predominantly of Maurs . Non-Maur membership on
the CMSN and in other senior civilian and military positions
has decreased in the wake of ethnic tensions.
The Government uses a quasi-political organization, the
Structure for the Education of the Masses (SEM), to mobilize
people to carry out local improvement projects, to relay
policy initiatives, and to serve as a channel to discuss
grievances. SEM ' s are found at all governmental levels down
to villages and neighborhoods. In practice, most significant
grievances, including violence, are discussed at the family,
clan, or tribal level first and passed along to influential
governmental figures of the same family or tribe.
As political parties are prohibited, opposition groups operate
clandestinely or from outside the country. An unknown number
of people were arrested in 1989 on suspicion of membership in
the African Liberation Forces of Mauritania. They were still
detained without charge at the end of 1990. Other opposition
groups include the Resistance for Unity, Independence, and
Democracy in Mauritania, established in 1989, and the United
Front for Armed Resistance in Mauritania. Each of these
groups reportedly conducts armed raids into Mauritania.
The Government had planned to hold complete nationwide
municipal elections in January 1990, but these elections were
postponed in the aftermath of the April 1989 disruptions.
These elections, which allowed for popular expression on local
issues and candidates, were held in December and appeared to
be generally free of government interference. While there
were some allegations of fraud, the major complaint among the
populace concerned the administration of the elections.
Section 4 Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations
of Human Rights
In the past, the Taya Government has been generally responsive
to human rights concerns. It allowed a UNHRC representative
to investigate allegations of slavery and permitted visits by
Amnesty International (AI), the International Commission of
Jurists, and the African Jurists Association. A
representative from the London Anti-Slavery Society visited
Mauritania in 1990 to investigate vestiges of slavery. In
1990 both AI and Africa Watch published reports on human
rights abuses in Mauritania.
The Mauritanian Human Rights League, affiliated with the
Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights and the
Inter-African Union for Human Rights, is staffed by volunteers
who address concerns such as eradicating vestiges of slavery,
ensuring the uniform application of Shari'a law, promoting the
status of women, and preventing abuses such as arbitrary
arrest, detention, and torture. In the wake of the ethnic
disturbances of 1989, the League experienced serious setbacks
in its efforts to remain a viable and independent
organization. It issued a statement in July 1989 critical of
government expulsions of black Mauritanians , but since then,
under government pressure, it has not publicly commented on or
questioned the Government's human rights excesses.
Section 5 Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
Language, or Social Status
Mauritania is situated geographically and culturally on the
divide between traditionally nomadic Arabic (Hassaniya)-
speaking Maurs of the north and the sedentary black
cultivators of the African south. The interaction of these
two groups produces the complex cultural diversity as well as
the ethnic tensions in Mauritanian society. Historically, the
Hassaniya-speaking white Maurs have dominated the political
and economic system. Taken together, the Hassaniya-speaking
black Maurs and Mauritania's non-Hassaniya-speaking blacks
outnumber the white Maurs by a considerable majority. This
racial majority is by no means cohesive, however, since black
Maurs identify in many ways more closely with the white Maur
population. Many non-Hassaniya-speaking black Mauritanians
have long contended that since independence, white Maur
domination in government, state enterprises, business, and
religious institutions is a result of ethnic and linguistic
discrimination. It has been a longstanding policy of the
Government to promote Arabization and the use of Arabic as the
country's principal language, although French is still widely
used as well. Non-Hassaniya-speaking black Mauritanians
charge that the Government's new land reform law is a means to
allow white and black Maurs to encroach upon the fertile land
in the Senegal River Valley that had been traditionally their
preserve. Recent movements of nomads into the Senegal River
Valley as a result of the decade-long drought in the north
further exacerbated tensions.
The longstanding ethnic tensions within Mauritanian society
came dramatically to the fore in April 1989. The events of
that period resulted more from an eruption of underlying
ethnic tensions rather than officially sanctioned government
policy on either side of the river. This was not true,
however, for the expulsions of non-Hassaniya-speaking black
Mauritanians that followed which were largely orchestrated by
Mauritanian security forces. The expulsions and effective
deprivation of citizenship were based only on ethnicity, since
only non-Hassaniya-speaking black Mauritanians were affected.
The regular cross-border raids were carried out by
non-Hassaniya-speaking ethnic groups, and Government security
force reprisals were therefore directed solely against these
groups.
In the wake of expulsions, repatriations, and unsettled
security conditions, some white and black Maurs were resettled
into deserted, previously Halpulaar-inhabited villages in the
Senegal River Valley. For example, some 2,700 inhabitants of
Nouakchott refugee camps were resettled in deserted Halpulaar
villages in the Trarza region in the early months of 1990.
While many of those resettled were themselves refugees from
Senegal, others had moved from northern Mauritania in search
of richer farmlands and were resented by the Halpulaar
residents
.
Women have legal rights to property, divorce, and child
custody. Although there is a somewhat lower percentage of
women than men educated at the university level, there are no
legal restrictions on education for women. Women do not wear
the veil, may travel without restriction, and may own and
manage their own businesses. The Government is encouraging
the entry of women into the professions, government, and
business, and a number of women have moved into senior or
midlevel government positions in recent years. In late 1988,
the Taya Government created a new Ministry of Women's Affairs,
Arts, and Tourism, and appointed a woman as the first
Minister. A female counselor in the presidency assumed
responsibility for women's affairs following the death of this
Minister.
The Government has also been instrumental in opening up new
opportunities for employment traditionally reserved for men,
such as in hospital work. According to Mauritanian law, men
and women must receive equal pay for equal work; Mauritania's
two largest employers, the civil service and the state mining
company SNIM, respect this law.
Violence against women occurs, but no data exists to indicate
its extent. The police and judiciary have been known to
intervene in domestic disputes, but the Mauritanian media
provides no coverage of this. The Government has taken no
position nor issued any statements on violence against women
or on female genital mutilation (circumcision) which is a
traditional practice in some areas of southern Mauritania,
where infibulation is practiced. This custom is seldom, if
ever, practiced in the north, and some evidence indicates that
the incidence of female circumcision is diminishing in the
modern, urbanized sector.
Section 6 Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
Workers are free to establish unions at the local and national
level. There are currently 36 trade unions in the country.
All, however, must be affiliates of the Union of Mauritanian
Workers (UTM) , by law the country's only central labor body.
The trade unions and the UTM elect their leadership
democratically and determine most of their programs and
policies without government interference, provided these avoid
political issues. The UTM is an active member of the
International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions and the
Organization of African Trade Union Unity and represents
Mauritanian workers in the International Labor Organization
(ILO).
Although Mauritanian law grants workers the right to strike,
in practice strikes rarely occur, due to Government pressure.
Under Mauritanian law, tripartite arbitration committees,
composed of union, business, and government representatives,
may impose binding arbitration that automatically terminates
any strike. In October members of the bakers' union in
Nouakchott staged a 1-day strike, and subsequently won some
wage concessions.
b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively
Unions are free to organize workers without government or
employer interference. According to the UTM, close to 90
percent of industrial and commercial workers in Mauritania are
members of unions. The laws providing worker's protection
against antiunion discrimination are regularly enforced.
Collective bargaining, notably to set wages, occurs informally
between individual unions, employers, the Government, and the
UTM. In addition, employees or employers may bring labor
disputes to three-person labor courts that are overseen
jointly by the Ministries of Justice and Labor. Labor leaders
regard these courts as unbiased and effective. There are no
export processing zones in Mauritania, and labor laws are
applied uniformly throughout the country.
In April 1990, the Senegalese Confederation of Workers (CNTS)
submitted a representation to the ILO, charging the Government
of Mauritania with violating several ILO conventions. The
CNTS detailed the Government's "deportation and banishment of
its own black African citizens," and specified numerous
sectors in which significant numbers of non-Hassaniya-speaking
blacks were dismissed without cause and, in many cases,
deprived of basic rights.
c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor
Slavery was officially abolished in Mauritania only in 1980,
and many persons whose ancestors were slaves still- occupied
positions of servitude in 1990. This was due in part to the
economic hardships they would have encountered if they had
left. However, in some areas persons were sometimes held
against their will and forced to perform unpaid labor. Africa
Watch claims that slavery persists and charges that the
Government has taken no significant practical steps to
eradicate the practice. Several reports indicated that some
instances of forced labor involved young children.
d. Minimum Age for Employment of Children
Education is not compulsory in Mauritania, but Mauritanian law
specifies that no child may be employed before the age of 13
in the agricultural sector without the permission of the
Minister of Labor, nor before the age of 15 in the
nonagricultural sector. The law provides that employed
children aged 14 to 16 should receive 70 percent of the
minimum wage, and those from 17 to 18 should receive 90
percent of the minimum wage. There is limited enforcement of
child labor laws by the few inspectors in the Ministry of
Labor. In practice, much younger children in the countryside
pursue herding, cultivation, and other significant labor in
support of their families' traditional activities. In
accordance with longstanding tradition, some children served
apprenticeships in small industries, but overall, child labor
in the nonagricultural sector does not appear to be widespread,
e. Acceptable Conditions of Work
In 1990 the guaranteed minimum wage for adults was equivalent
to roughly $75 per month. These wages barely enabled the
average family to meet its minimum needs. The standard, legal
nonagricultural workweek in Mauritania cannot exceed either 40
hours or 6 days without overtime compensation, which is paid
at rates that are graduated according to the number of
supplemental hours worked. Reliable data on actual wage
levels is scarce. Enforcement of the labor laws is the
responsibility of the Labor Inspectorate of the Ministry of
Labor but in practice is limited by the shortage of qualified
personnel.
