Report on the abolition of slavery in Mauritania.

Slavery as an institution protected by law had been genuinely abolished in Mauritania, according to Marc Bossuyt, an expert of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of the Commission on Human Rights.

He added that the legal abolition of slavery in Mauritania on 5 July 1980 was an "important" fact. The Government of Mauritania recognized the need for "complementary measures" to eradicate situations of de facto slavery that might still persist in certain remote corners of the country over which the administration had little control, and was implementing them. The measures included the 1983 land reform and "other measures to change attitudes and mentalities".

Mr. Bossuyt made the observations in two separate documents--a written presentation (E/CN.4/1985/50) of the report of the mission he had undertaken "to study the situation prevailing in Mauritania with regard to slavery and the slave trade with a view to assessing that country's needs in its struggle to end such practices" (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1984/23). The documents were reviewed by the Commission during its 1985 annual session held at Geneva from 4 February to 15 March.

Mr. Bossuyt said the Government of Mauritania should be encouraged to "pursue and intensify" its efforts, and an appeal should be addressed to the international community to provide assistance to it in its struggle to eliminate the consequences of slavery. He pointed out that slavery as practised in Mauritania, usually took the form of servitude which, "as such," was contrary to human dignity, but was "not attended by inhuman treatment." The essence of the notion of slavery, he observed, was the particular legal status of dependency upon another person, and the legal status of slavery must not be confused with inferior social status. Thus, the Proclamation of 5 July 1980 by the Military Committee for National Salvation and the order of 9 November 1981 abolishing slavery--which implied at the time recognition of the fact that a certain form of slavery existed in Mauritania--were of particular importance.

Origins: In a statement at the 1983 session of the Sub-Commission, included as an annex to the report, a representative of the Mauritanian Government had said there was no "fundamental difference" between the origins and the form of slavery in Mauritania and those encountered in the history of other African societies, especially in the Sudano-Sahelian region. With one of Africa's longest coastlines and situated on what had always been a highly active trade route between the countries of the Mediterranean and Europe and Sub-Sahara Africa, Mauritania, as it was now delimited, had long been a transit zone for trade, including trade in slaves. The practices of slavery had been known in the ancient population centres of Mauritania long before the country turned to Islan, and had never taken the form of racial domination. Blacks owned men of the same colour, and "white" men were dominated and reduced to the status of slaves.

As regarded the origins of "this phenomenon", the Mauritanian representative stated, skin pigmentation was never in any way a criterion. That was quite understandable in the case of Mauritanian society, which, because of the country's position at an ethnic and cultual crossroads, had a very high proportion of people of mixed race. "Contrary, then, to what seems to be a common notion, not to say a traditional idea in certain circles, the practice of slavery is far from being the prerogative of Mauritania's Arab community to the detriment of the country's black African element." The phenomenon had also occurred in black African societies--which were "more markedly hierarchical than the Arab community" -- and its origins, development and present status were much the same in both ethnic groups.

The Mauritanian representative said "It is, in fact, a historical phenomenon which the wars, kidnappings and trade relations that have marked their history brought to all the societies of the Sudano-Sahelian region." However, it had never been practised either on the scale or in the forms that characterized the Negro slave trade. "Slavery as practised by, and as still thought of in, the West has never been a feature of the region. The recrudescence of slavery and the Negro slave trade consequent on the discovery of the New World and on the vigorous economic activity in pursuit of its development were, of course, no disincentive to such practices in Mauritania, owing in particular to the proximity of a number of active centres of that renowned three-cornered trade."

Mr. Bossuyt recommended that the Government of Mauritania, among other things, should: Set up a specific body which would be entrusted with co-ordinating the struggle against slavery and to which any person experiencing difficulties in that field could apply; carry out the reform of the civil status legislation now in preparation, in such a manner that it could become, inter alia, a means of helping former slaves to become conscious of their legal personality as free men; and invite the religious authorities to explain that the abolition of slavery had been decided upon in conformity with the Sharia'a (Islamic law).

Mr. Bossuyt's mission was carried out from 13 to 22 January 1984 at the invitation of the Government of Mauritania. He was accompanied by officials from the United Nations Office at Geneva and by Peter Davies, Director of the Anti-Slavery Society, a London-based non-governmental organization. The mission was received, among others, by Colonel Maouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, who became Head of State in December 1984. It also met with "freedmen" (harateens) "particularly concerned with the advancement of ex-slaves".