Anti-slavery bill slammed

2007-07-08 20:15

Nouakchott - A law proposed by the Mauritanian government that would make slavery punishable by up to 10 years behind bars is "inadequate", said a leading anti-slavery group here on Sunday.

"We are satisfied with... the will of the authorities to abolish slavery, but we think the proposed text is inadequate," said Boubacar Messaoud, the head of the non-governmental organisation, SOS Slavery.

"The law proposal does not give a very clear definition of slavery as it is practised here," he said.

He added that it also recommended penalties that "fall short of those for similar crimes, such as in cases of crimes against humanity".

SOS Slavery has, in co-operation with other human-rights groups, suggested amending the bill to increase the maximum penalty for slavery from the proposed 10 years' to 30 years in prison.

"A true policy for eradicating slavery"

The groups have also called on the government to, in parallel with the new law, launch "a true policy for eradicating slavery", as well as a national agency aimed at fighting the practice.

Messaoud said he planned to present these proposals to parliament "very soon".

Slavery has existed in Mauritania for centuries, and slaves, traditionally domestic, are drawn both from the black African and Arab populations.

The West African country officially did away with the practice in 1981, but it persists amid entrenched opinions and caste systems, unenthusiastic about change.

Legislation passed in 2003 strengthened the ban by making "trafficking in people" illegal. "Trafficking" was reclassified as a crime from being a simple misdemeanour.

Made a pledge

The 2003 law said the agreement of the slave did not make the practice admissible, but fudged the word "slavery".

Mauritanian Prime Minister Zeine Ould Zeidane presented the new law proposal on June 25, saying the 1981 law "did not explicitly qualify the phenomenon, nor its incrimination or repression."

Mauritania's new president Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, elected in March, had pledged to "permanently" eradicate slavery within six months.

- AFP