CCPR Concluding Observations: Mauritania, 2013
Published: 21/Nov/2013
Source: UN Human Rights Committee
CCPR/C/MRT/CO/1
Extract:
24.The Committee regrets that the State party has not yet adopted the Asylum Act. It is also concerned by the restrictions imposed on the freedom of movement of refugees and asylum seekers who, since the revision of the Civil Status Act of 2011, no longer enjoy refugee status. The Committee is further concerned that urban refugees and asylum seekers continue to encounter legal obstacles to the registration of their children born in Mauritania because of the provisions of the Personal Status Code. Lastly, the Committee is concerned that not all the repatriated Mauritanian refugees have obtained identity and citizenship documents yet; this is likely to create obstacles to their enjoyment of some rights and to promote the risk of statelessness. In addition, the Committee is concerned that other Mauritanian refugees who are in Mali as a result of the events of 1989–1990 do not always have identity documents (arts. 12 and 24).
The State party should speed up the adoption of the asylum bill in order to facilitate asylum application procedures. It should also consider the situation of former refugees and asylum seekers with a view to providing them with identity documents, where appropriate, and allowing them to move about more easily. The State party should remove the legal obstacles to the registration of births of children of refugees and asylum seekers born in Mauritania . Finally, it should make it easier for refugees repatriated under the tripartite agreement between the State party, Senegal and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to obtain identity documents, and consider signing a similar agreement to cover Mauritanian refugees in Mali following the events of 1989–1990. It should consider establishing a mechanism to address the humanitarian consequences of those events.
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