This report aims to explore the extensive human rights concerns in Mauritania which arise from slavery, including the closely related area of discrimination on the basis of social status. Even people who have been freed from slavery in Mauritania continue to suffer discrimination. This report documents cases where people have recently escaped from slavery and the inadequate response of officials at all levels to their plight. It describes the measures the government should have taken to accompany the 1981 abolition and which are still necessary to eradicate slavery and to combat discrimination against those formerly held in slavery and their descendants.
