Access to citizenship in Mauritania is governed by the Loi N° 1961-112 portant code de la nationalité mauritanienne as modified by Loi No 2010 – 023 du 11 février 2010. The 2010 amendments removed provisions that attributed nationality automatically to a child born in Mauritania of a parent who was also born there (with the right to repudiate at majority if it was only the mother who was also born there). The 2010 law also altered the provision for access to nationality of women married to Mauritanian men from automatic recognition to requiring an application process. There is still no provision for the husbands of Mauritanian women to acquire nationality, and women cannot transmit nationality to their children born outside the country.
A critical issue related to citizenship in Mauritania has been the treatment of Mauritanians of black African descent. Mauritania is populated by three principal groups: lighter-skinned people of mixed Arab-Berber heritage, known as Beydanes; Arabic-speaking darker-skinned people known as Haratines, the descendants of former slaves; and those belonging to sub-Saharan ethnic groups, speaking a range of other languages. From the mid-1980s, the Mauritanian government undertook a policy of Arabisation, increasingly discriminating against non-Arabic speaking Mauritanians. In 1989, following a dispute between Senegalese farmers and Mauritanian pastoralists in the Senegal River Valley, an estimated 70,000-80,000 black Mauritanians were expelled to Senegal and Mali.
In 2005, a change in government opened the door to repatriation to Mauritania and approximately 25,000 Mauritanians returned with UNHCR assistance between 2008 and 2012. However, the returnees complain that they have been unable to access lost land or identity cards, and face ongoing discrimination. The introduction of a new identification system in 2010, in parallel with amendments to the nationality code, left many who claimed Mauritanian nationality unable to access new identity cards.
by Nellie Peyton NOUAKCHOTT, DEC 17 – Mo had nothing but a set of jail clothes and the name of a distant cousin when he boarded the deportation flight from the United States to Mauritania, the African country he had…
CRC/C/MRT/CO/3-5 Extract: Birth registration The Committee welcomes the measures taken to promote birth registration, including reforms of the civil registration system, introduction of biometric registration and expansion of registration centres. However, it remains concerned about the persisting low rate of…
CERD/C/MRT/CO/8-14 Extract: Discrimination in the transmission of nationality 21. The Committee is concerned to note that article 8 of the Nationality Code (Act No. 1961-112 of 12 June 1961) and articles 13 and 16 of Act No. 2010-023 of 11…
(Tunis) – Mauritania’s national civil registration process is preventing some children from attending public school and taking mandatory national examinations, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should change its policies to ensure that no school-age child is deprived of…
Nationality laws which do not grant women equality with men in conferring nationality to their children are a cause of statelessness and a concern for UNHCR under its mandate to prevent and reduce statelessness. Since 2012, UNHCR has issued an…
The U.N. refugee agency reports the Mauritanian Government is issuing birth certificates to thousands of Malian refugee children who were born in Mbera camp, conferring important legal protections upon them. Refugee children who lack a birth certificate more often than…
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Cécile Pouilly – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today’s press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, welcomes the…
(Nouakchott) – Mauritania’s human rights defenders face repression when they raise the country’s most sensitive social issues, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The issues include ethnic and caste discrimination, slavery, and the need for accountability for…
By Zahra Albarazi This report will introduce some of the most fundamental concepts, trends and challenges with regard to nationality in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This region has always had a complicated relationship with the notion of…
After flight from civil war, Syrians describe difficult life in Mauritania, telling MEE ‘we feel like outsiders’ despite local sympathy By Jillian D’Amours NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania – Mohamad Mudar Oulabie knows he doesn’t have many choices. But after almost five years…