There are currently more than 500,000 slaves in Mauritania. For this reason, the Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker, GfbV) and the Anti-slavery movement IRA (Initiative pour la Résurgence du Mouvement Abolitioniste) are demanding that the decision to send development aid to Mauritania from the EU, which will be discussed in Brussels on the 22nd and 23rd of June, be contingent upon the willingness of the Mauritanian government to take a stand against slavery in its country.

"Slavery was officially abolished in Mauritania in 1981. Mauritanian human rights workers estimate, however, that approximately 20 percent of the population is forced to work for little to no wage either as domestic help or as agricultural laborers,” reports Ulrich Delius, the STP consultant for Africa. "Victims of slavery are mostly Haratins, an Arabized population of black African origin. The Haratins make up about 40 percent of the three million citizens of Mauritania. Those who dare to denounce this scandal are, like the IRA-Chairman Biram Dah Abeid, subject to persecution and defamation." Due to the fact that the Mauritanian government continues to deny the existence of slavery in its country, an independant inquiry is necessary in order to determine the extent of the situation. The STP and IRA further demand that a law forbidding slavery must be passed in order to provide victims of slavery with a legal foundation from which they may then take action against their "masters.”

The Mauritanian government has, with the support of the EU commission of countries that are supplying it with development aid, been invited to a "round table” discussion in Brussels in order to discuss and determine the provision of further development aid. Mauritania is expected to bring a 50-person delegation, including a group of handpicked representatives from various Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). Anti-slavery activists, however, are not included.

"The EU must apply its ‘Guidelines for the protection of human rights activists’ in order to ensure that human rights activists fighting against slavery will no longer be in danger of persecution and intimidation by the Mauritanian government,” said Delius. After openly criticizing the existence of slavery in Mauritania at a conference in Paris in February of 2009, Biram Dah Abeid was denied a passport extension. He was further accused of working with the Israeli secret service and was villianized as a traitor and blasphemer. Furthermore, a fake health certificate was circulated that claimed he was insane and his organization, the IRA, was banned.

Ulrich Delius can be contacted at asien@gfbv.de