{"id":16500,"date":"2018-02-12T11:43:40","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T11:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/?p=16500"},"modified":"2018-04-02T16:55:03","modified_gmt":"2018-04-02T16:55:03","slug":"mauritania-human-rights-defenders-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/mauritania-human-rights-defenders-at-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Mauritania: Human Rights Defenders at Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(Nouakchott) \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/middle-east\/n-africa\/mauritania\">Mauritania\u2019s<\/a> human rights defenders face repression when they raise the country\u2019s 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 a campaign of atrocities against certain groups three decades ago.<\/p>\n<p>The 73-page page report, \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/node\/314521\">Ethnicity, Discrimination, and Other Red Lines: Repression of Human Rights Defenders in Mauritania<\/a>,\u201d examines the legal framework that allows the government to easily refuse legal recognition to associations it dislikes, on such grounds as engaging in \u201canti-national propaganda\u201d or \u201cexercis[ing] an unwelcome influence on the minds of the people.\u201d Without legal recognition, associations are hard-pressed to rent a hall for a meeting or public event, obtain permission to peacefully protest, or obtain funding from foreign donors.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed\" data-type=\"report\">\n<article class=\"node node-report align-right embed report--teaser report--longform-teaser clearfix\">\n<div class=\"report-content\">\n<div class=\"dropdown-list\">\n<ul class=\"list--dropdown\">\n<li class=\"field-item odd\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2018\/02\/12\/mauritania-human-rights-defenders-risk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Continue reading press release<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"field-item odd\"><span class=\"file\"><a title=\"mauritania0218_web.pdf\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/sites\/default\/files\/report_pdf\/mauritania0218_web_1.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf; length=783957\">Download the full report in English<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"field-item even\"><span class=\"file\"> <a title=\"mauritania0218_appendix.pdf\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/sites\/default\/files\/report_pdf\/mauritania0218_appendix.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf; length=126596\">Download the appendix of the report in English<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Extract from the report:<\/p>\n<h3>Obstacles to Obtaining Full Citizenship<\/h3>\n<p>In January 2008, the governments of Mauritania and Senegal began the formal process of repatriating some of the estimated 60,000 Mauritanians whom authorities expelled or who fled to Senegal in 1989 and 1990 during the <i>Passif Humanitaire<\/i>. In May 2011, Mauritanian authorities launched a nationwide census aimed at registering the country\u2019s population in a biometric database, systematizing national ID cards and finalizing electoral lists.<\/p>\n<p>Touche Pas \u00e0 Ma Nationalit\u00e9 (TPMN) was founded in response to the 2011 census and subsequent national registration process, which TPMN says is aimed at undermining the citizenship rights of black Mauritanians. Government ministers told Human Rights Watch that authorities had refused legal recognition to TPMN because it, like IRA, \u201cdivides national unity.\u201d They called \u201cbaseless\u201d TPMN\u2019s claim that the registration process is ethnically discriminatory. Human Rights Watch has not examined the merits of this claim. However, the UN special rapporteurs on racism and extreme poverty have described the ongoing registration process as discriminating against Haratines and <i>n\u00e9gro-mauritaniens<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>When the TPMN first organized rallies to protest the new registration process in 2011, authorities sometimes dispersed them with force, TPMN leaders said, causing injuries and the death by gunfire of one young protester in the town of Magama on September 27, 2011. Since then, TPMN\u2019s leaders say, they have not tried to organize mass rallies, but have been able to conduct smaller-scale protests such as sit-ins.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Nouakchott) \u2013 Mauritania\u2019s human rights defenders face repression when they raise the country\u2019s 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 a campaign of atrocities against certain groups three decades ago. The 73-page page report, \u201cEthnicity, [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","region-mauritania","type-ngos-and-experts","type-reports","item-year-642","item-theme-acquisition-of-nationality","item-theme-discrimination","item-theme-ethnic-racial-religious","item-theme-loss-and-deprivation-of-nationality"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16500"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16537,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16500\/revisions\/16537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}