Mauritania: Winner of the Weimar Human Rights Prize will not be released

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) is disappointed about the fact that an appeals court in Mauritania has confirmed that Biram Dah Abeid, winner of the Weimar Human Rights Award and anti-slavery activist, and his deputy Brahim Bilal Ramdhane will have to serve a two-year prison sentence. “There is no justice for abolitionists in Mauritania. The court proceedings – which took place in camera – were all but fair,” said Ulrich Delius, the STP’s Africa-consultant, in Göttingen on Friday. The authorities had decided to move the proceedings to the provincial town Aleg in order to avoid demonstrations. As a form of protest, the defendants did not attend the appeal proceedings.

On January 15, 2015, the two well-known human rights activists were sentenced to two years in prison for participating in a demonstration against slavery and for allegedly being involved in an unofficial organization. In 2013, Biram Dah Abeid was awarded the United Nations Human Rights Prize for his commitment against slavery in the scope of the Abolitionist-movement IRA – but the Mauritanian authorities refused to recognize the human rights organization nonetheless. In 2011, Biram Dah Abeid had been honored with the Weimar Human Rights Award.

Before the appeal hearing on Thursday, the security forces had shielded the court building and established a no-protest zone. Journalists, representatives of other human rights organizations and about 200 supporters of the IRA were not allowed to attend the proceedings. Before, the defendants’ lawyers had tried to protest against the measures, accusing the authorities of moving the proceedings to a remote province to avoid public protests and to keep friends and relatives from attending the proceedings.

The disputes about ongoing slavery in Mauritania are damaging the country’s international reputation. To show commitment in the struggle against slavery, the government had adopted a new law in August 2015, defining slavery as a “crime against humanity”. However, Mauritania’s assurances are not credible as long as the existing laws are not used to actually punish slaveholders and as long as abolitionists are being silenced. This opinion is shared by 980,000 people who, within only a few days, signed an Avaaz appeal, demanding the detainees to be released and calling for an end to slavery.