3 million children between the ages of 5 and 17—12.2% of this age group—were in child labour in 2017. This represents a significant increase, compared with 8.5% of these children in 2012.
Children in rural areas are more than three times as likely to be in child labour (17.6%) than children in urban areas (4.9%). Many children and adults in Mauritania, especially from the Haratine ethnic minority, are exploited in forced labour, particularly in rural and remote areas of the country.
Some children are born into forced labour, while others are born free but remain in a dependent status. They are often forced to work with their parents for their former masters in exchange for food, money, and lodging. Children in forced labour herd animals, such as cattle and goats, perform domestic labour, and are often sexually exploited. Mauritania is both a source and a destination country for trafficking, particularly of children.
Mauritania ratifies the Palermo Protocol on Trafficking in Persons. The country commits to taking measures against transnational organized crime.
Mauritania adopts theNational Plan of Action for the Elimination of Child Labour. The country joins the Bridge project, funded by the US Department of Labor, which aims to strengthen the capacity of relevant ministries and stakeholders to develop, implement, and monitor policies and national action plans on forced labour, provide capacity building to improve law enforcement, and support public awareness campaigns to address all forms of forced labour.
Mauritania becomes one of the first countries to ratify the 2014 Protocol to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930.
Since May 2020 two of the Mauritania’s regions (Wilayas) have been targeted, Guidimakha and Trarza. The Ministry of Public Service and Labour (MFPT), Ministry of Livestock (MEL), Ministry of Social Affairs, Childhood and Family (MASEF) coordinated tripartite missions and two regional workshops were organised, in connection with strategic axes N°2 and 3 of the National Action Plan for the Elimination of Child Labour in Mauritania (PANETE -RIM 2015-2020).
The safe management of migration is the current priority of the government and its main development partners. Mauritania has a national migration management strategy, but it is under review to take into account new contexts in its governance, including the Marrakech Pact on Migration, adopted at the end of 2018, and Mauritania’s ratification of Convention No. 143 on 23 September 2019
To combat human trafficking, the Government has adopted the National Action Plan to Combat Trafficking in Persons (PANTP). This action plan addresses all aspects related to the issue of trafficking. It provides the Government with an integrated planning instrument to fight effectively and sustainably against this scourge. The government adopted a decree n°01197, the law 2015 -031 on the criminalisation of slavery and the law 2004-17 on the Labour Code. Mauritania has adopted a strategy for the protection of the child, the general code for the protection of the child
Accelerating action to end forced labour, human trafficking, modern slavery and child labour; experiences from Alliance 8.7 pathfinder countries Th..
In the margins of the High Level Political Forum, the Alliance 8.7 Global Coordinating Group held their 5th meeting at the Westin Hotel in New York. ..
The Second Global Meeting of the Action Group on Supply Chains was held in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire on 14-15 May, 2019 gathering over 140 participants...
Mauritania held the third Pathfinder Country Strategic Planning workshop on 4th March, 2019. The National Focal Point for Alliance 8.7 in Mauritania, ..
“The ambitions of the Alliance have become concrete realities because this Alliance currently offers a forum for partners to exchange information, experiences and lessons learned and to observe the degree of progress that has taken place in these areas.”