Free the Slaves Joins Global Call for Release Of

News Advisory | August 22, 2016

Free the Slaves Joins Global Call for Release of

Jailed Anti-Trafficking Activists in Mauritania

WASHINGTON -- Jailing anti-trafficking activists for exercising their rights is wrong. But in the African nation of Mauritania, the government last weeksentenced 13 members of the group Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA)to up to 15 years in prison on trumped-up charges.

According to our colleagues at Anti-Slavery International: “They were charged after a protest in late June in an impoverished neighborhood against the forced relocation of the community in preparation for the Arab League Summit. However, none of the thirteen activists, nor IRA, had organized the protest or taken part in it.” Anti-slavery calls this a “devastating blow” to the Mauritanian human rights movement.

“Free the Slaves roundly condemns the sentencing of Mauritanian anti-slavery activists to significant terms of imprisonment,” says Free the Slaves Executive Director Maurice Middleberg. “There is no evidence that these activists committed the crimes of which they are accused. Instead, activists are being persecuted for their work to abolish slavery.The Mauritanian government should be embracing these individuals as partners in efforts to transform their society for the better, not imprisoning them while slaveholders continue to commit crimes with impunity. Free the Slaves stands in solidarity with anti-slavery activists and heroes in Mauritania, and calls on officials at all levels of government in Mauritania to do all they can to reverse their inhumane course.”

The U.S. State Department’s 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report places Mauritania on the Tier 3 list of nations that are the world’s worst human trafficking offenders: “The Government of Mauritania does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. In 2015, the government created courts exclusively to try slavery cases and enacted an anti-slavery law that allows some NGOs to bring forward slavery cases on behalf of victims. However, these courts were underfunded, the judges did not receive specific training on how to try human trafficking cases, and the government did not prosecute any traffickers. It did not provide adequate protective services to victims or establish procedures to identify victims among persons arrested for prostitution and individuals detained and deported for immigration violations. The government continued to imprison anti-slavery activists and repress civil society advocacy for an increase in anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts.”

For more information contact: Free the Slaves Communications Director Terry FitzPatrick

Phone: 202-775-7480 |

1320 19th St. NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036 USA | 202-775-7480

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