Statement by United Nations Watch, delivered by intern Issy Lyons, before the 62nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, 30 June 2026. Agenda Item 6, Universal Periodic Review of Mauritania.

Full Speech:

Thank you, Mr. President.

United Nations Watch is concerned by the gap between Mauritania’s legal commitments and the reality experienced by many of its citizens.

Despite legal prohibitions and repeated government commitments, slavery remains prevalent. According to the Global Slavery Index, as of 2023, at least 149,000 people in Mauritania remained enslaved. 

This reality has been brought to international attention by Biram Dah Abeid, one of Mauritania’s most prominent anti-slavery activists and winner of our 2020 Geneva Summit Courage Award.

Mr. Abeid has been repeatedly arrested and imprisoned for his efforts to expose hereditary slavery and defend its victims. Persecution of anti-slavery activists raises serious concerns about the protection of human rights defenders and the authorities’ willingness to address slavery in practice, not only in law.

We are also concerned by severe challenges affecting children and women. According to a 2022 UNICEF report, more than half a million girls were married before the age of 18, representing roughly two in five women in Mauritania. This is particularly concerning because, despite Mauritania’s formal establishment of 18 as the minimum age of marriage, exceptions remain under national law and are justified by reference to Sharia principles.

The true measure of progress is not the number of strategies adopted, institutions created, or laws passed. It is whether those trapped in slavery are actually freed, whether women and girls enjoy equal protection under the law, and whether human rights defenders like Biram Dah Abeid can advocate for the values this council claims to strive for without fear of arrest or imprisonment.

United Nations Watch, therefore urges Mauritania to strengthen enforcement of anti-slavery laws, remove barriers to justice for victims, protect human rights defenders, and ensure that legal reforms translate into real change for all Mauritanians.

Thank you.

The post UN Watch Calls on Mauritania to Strengthen Anti-Slavery Laws appeared first on UN Watch.

Launching a 10-day visit to the country, today the UN Special Rapporteur on Slavery, Tomoya Obokata, met with Mauritania’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Cheikh Ahmedou Ould Ahmed Salem Ould Sidi, along with cabinet ministers and other top officials.

GENEVA, May 4, 2022 — The independent non-governmental human rights group UN Watch today called on U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield to move for the suspension of Mauritania from the 47-nation Human Rights Council until the world body certifies that the government has completely eradicated slavery.

Today’s appeal comes as the UN special rapporteur on slavery, Tomoya Obokata, launched a 10-day visit to Mauritania to “examine questions relating to the persistence of descent-based slavery” and “the  situation of formerly enslaved people and those originating from slave castes.”

According to estimates by CNN and The Guardian, up to 500,000 people in Mauritania are subjected to slavery.

A new UN report released last week confirmed that Mauritania has failed to take numerous needed measures to eradicate slavery.

“We welcome today’s visit to Mauritania by the United Nations monitor on slavery,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “The need for his mission is a stark reminder to the world that a racist regime that enslaves tens of thousands of black people has no place on any council for human rights.”

“We are calling on U.S. Ambassador Thomas-Greeenfield to make the case to the United Nations that slave-holding Mauritania should not have a position of authority in a body whose purpose is to promote respect for human rights.”

“This the height of hypocrisy, and it is dangerous. Mauritania’s regime uses its membership on the Human Rights Council as a platform for propaganda to suggest it has a legitimate concern for human rights.”

“The UN always says that it condemn racism. Now is the time to match those words with action by removing this racist and slave-holding regime from the world’s top human rights body.”

“Confronting racism is the UN’s charge. It is the responsibility of UN leaders and leaders around the world.”

“Mauritania’s participation on the Human Rights Council hurts the council’s credibility. It undermines the entire UN, and it is just plain wrong. The UN must do what it right, and do right by the men, women and children of Mauritania who are being treated as chattel.”

UN Watch, the Geneva-based human rights organization, has been a leading voice at the United Nations to end slavery in Mauritania and hold the regime accountable, bringing top Mauritanian dissidents and anti-slavery activists to testify, and opposing the absurd election of the racist and slave-holding regime to top UN human rights posts.

The post UN Slavery Investigator Arrives in Mauritania, Rights Group Urges UNHRC to Oust Regime appeared first on UN Watch.

UN Special Rapporteur Tomoya Obokata’s visit will take place from May 4 to 13, 2022 where he will “examine questions relating to the persistence of descent-based slavery, as well as the social, economic and political situation of formerly enslaved people and those originating from slave castes.”

UN Watch, an independent non-governmental human rights organization based in Geneva,  has been the leading voice at the United Nations in fighting to end slavery in Mauritania, and in opposing the absurd election of the racist and slave-holding regime to top UN human rights posts.

Timeline of UN Watch’s Campaign to End Slavery in Mauritania

• May 2010: UN Watch issued a joint report with Freedom House opposing Mauritania’s candidacy to the UN Human Rights Council, declaring the country “Not Qualified” to be a member. UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer urged all UN General Assembly members not to vote for unqualified states such as Mauritania on their secret ballots. UN Watch’s report documented Mauritania’s gross abuses of human rights. Mauritania was nonetheless elected on May 13, 2010 to the UNHRC.

• December 2012: UN Watch was the first to condemn Mauritania’s election as Vice-President of the UNHRC, the second-highest position at the world’s top human rights body. “It is obscene for the UN to use the occasion of Human Rights Day, when we commemorate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to elect the world’s worst enabler of slavery to this prestigious post,” said Hillel Neuer. “The UN is making an arsonist head of the fire department. It defies both morality and common sense.”

• February 2013: UN Watch called for concrete action against rights abusers sitting on the UNHRC, including Mauritania. “The protection of human rights begins at home. Membership of the Council is a privilege that carries responsibilities, and these countries fail to meet the basic standards. It is revolting that the government of Mauritania, which continues to be complicit in the slavery of hundreds of thousands, is vice-president of the Council. This sends a devastating signal that the UN’s main human rights body does not practice what it preaches.”

• February 2013: UN Watch brought Mauritanian dissident Abidine Merzough to address its 2013 Geneva Summit for Human Rights. A descendant of former slaves, Merzough devotes his life to the fight against slavery in his native country: “Slaves in Mauritania are their masters’ property, often from birth. Women slaves are allowed to be sexually abused whenever their masters want. The masters can buy or sell slaves, or loan out parts of their bodies for use. The slaves must obey. This is Islamic law as it exists in Mauritania today, ” said Merzough.

• September 2013: Mauritania was outraged after UN Watch testified before the UNHRC and exposed its crimes, saying: “In the world today, nowhere is slavery so systematically practiced as in Mauritania, a country that is an elected member of this Human Rights Council. As unfathomable as it may sound, some 20 percent of Mauritanians, about 600,000 people belonging to the darker-skinned black African minority, live as slaves.” Mauritania exercised a right of reply, saying it “rejected the allegations” of UN Watch about slavery.  “Our authorities have been conducting a war against those practices,” said the Mauritanian delegate. “It cannot be said that legislation in Mauritania favors slavery. Islam is at the source of our legislation and Islam came to free mankind from slavery. What was said as an allegation by that organization is totally false. We are against attacks on our reputation, that is the reputation of Mauritania.”

• December 2013: UN Watch featured Abidine Merzough at its 2013 human rights panel event at the Vienna Diplomatic Academy. “The Islamic Republic of Mauritania is number one in slavery,” Merzough said. The country’s Baydhan ethnic group accounts for approximately 25 percent of the population and “exercises a monopoly on power,” he said. “Children are born into slavery.”

• February 2014: UN Watch brought Biram Dah Abeid, a Mauritanian human rights defender and founder of the anti-slavery NGO, Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement in Mauritania (IRA), to address the 2014 Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy. “Mauritania has the highest number of slaves in the world! They can be castrated, this is the law!” said Biram.

• October 2014: UN Watch condemned Mauritania’s election to the 54-member Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a top UN body that regulates human rights groups, shapes the composition of key UN women’s rights bodies, and adopts resolutions on subjects ranging from Internet freedom to female genital mutilation. “Tragically, the UN’s election today of regimes such as Mauritania — where there are hundreds of thousands living in slavery — sends a message that crass politics trumps basic human rights. The UN is letting down millions of victims around the globe who look to the world body for vital protection,” said Hillel Neuer.

• March 2016: When Mauritania came up for a mandatory human rights review that all UN member states undergo every five years, UN Watch invited Abidine Merzough to address the UNHRC plenary. Speaking in French, Merzough’s testimony spotlighted abuses in in his native Mauritania, the world’s last bastion of slavery. In response to UN Watch, Mauritania took the floor to deny the persistence of slavery in the country. “Slavery has been abolished in Mauritania,” the delegate insisted. “Slavery is essentially a crime against humanity. So I don’t know why there are people who continue to think that the phenomenon persists.”

• February 2017: UN Watch invited Biram Dah Abeid address the 9th annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights: “I am working for the self-determination of my black brothers and sisters and I am trying to free their desire for a free life.”

• October  2019: Ahead of UNHRC elections, UN Watch issued a joint report with the Human Rights Foundation and Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights calling on UN member states to oppose the election of Mauritania and other human rights abusers. In detail, UN Watch documented the Mauritanian regime’s gross abuses of human rights, including slavery torture, human trafficking and child labor. “Electing slave-holding Mauritania as a UN judge on human rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” warned Hillel Neuer in a press release on the day before the election.

• February 2020: UN Watch and its coalition of 25 human rights NGOs bestowed upon Biram Dah Abeid the prestigious Geneva Summit Courage Award at the 12th annual Geneva Summit. “We can only underline the paradox of the Mauritanian state, which in January 2020 joined the Human Rights Council as it is gleefully blurring human dignity and violating human rights, even the most basic ones,” said Biram.

• June 2020: UN Watch called on racist and oppressive regimes to recuse themselves from a UN Human Rights Council urgent debate on racism and police brutality. In a statement delivered to the UNHRC, Hillel Neuer said: “We ask Mauritania: Given that you have an estimated 500,000 black slaves, with CNN referring to Mauritania as ‘slavery’s last stronghold,’ will your country recuse itself from this urgent debate on racism against blacks?”

• January 2021: UN Watch condemned country speakers who took the floor at the UNHRC to shower praise on Mauritania during a mandatory review of its human rights record. “It is shameful that only a very small minority of 15 countries used their allotted 1 minute of speaking time to apply scrutiny to Mauritania’s human rights record,” said Hillel Neuer. “The vast majority of country speakers turned a blind eye to Mauritania’s 500,000 slaves, its arrest of anti-slavery activists like Biram Dah Abeid, use of torture to extract confessions, and its death penalty for homosexuality.”

No joke: 🇲🇷 Mauritania, a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council, still has SLAVERY.

After our decade-long campaign, the U.N. expert on slavery will finally visit to “assess what progress has been achieved and what else is needed to end slavery in Mauritania once and for all.” https://t.co/V4rucjLS8K

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) May 2, 2022

The post Timeline: UN Watch’s Campaign to End Slavery in Mauritania appeared first on UN Watch.

While the UN procedure known as Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is meant to scrutinize governments and thereby strengthen the basic rights and freedoms of their citizens, according to a UN Watch count, 83 out of 98 countries that spoke today at the UNHRC—85 percent—praised Mauritania for its human rights achievements.

This includes 48 countries that glowingly praised the abusive Mauritanian regime for their human rights record, and another 35 that expressed some praise for the country’s alleged achievements.

“It is shameful that only a very small minority of 15 countries used their allotted 1 minute of speaking time to apply scrutiny to Mauritania’s human rights record,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, an independent non-governmental human rights organization in Geneva.

“Shamefully, the vast majority of country speakers turned a blind eye to Mauritania’s 500,000 slaves, its arrest of anti-slavery activists like Biram Dah Abeid, use of torture to extract confessions, and its death penalty for homosexuality,” said Neuer.

Below is a selection of the praise expressed by 85% of the UNHRC delegates:

China: “We welcome [Mauritania’s] implementation of the strategy for accelerating growth and prosperity to continue to promote social and economic development, education, health, safeguarding the rights of the vulnerable, and actively fighting COVID.”

Cuba: “We acknowledge the country’s efforts to increase the quality of life of its population, and to reduce poverty, in the face of the COVID pandemic.”

North Korea: “We highly commend Mauritania for their efforts and progress in the promotion and protection of human rights by strengthening human rights institutions.”

Egypt: “We appreciate the efforts made by Mauritania to uphold human rights, notably the efforts to strengthen the legislative and institutional structure, and to ratify international conventions as well as the advancement of the status of women, and work on combating contemporary forms of slavery.”

India: “As a fellow member of the Human Rights Council, we appreciate Mauritania’s continued efforts in its commitment to promote and protect human rights through enactment of various human rights-related legislation, relevant policies and programs at national level.”

Indonesia: “Indonesia welcomes [Mauritania’s] progress in implementing accepted recommendations from the previous review cycle, particularly adoption of legislative and institutional frameworks in the area of promotion of women’s rights, efforts towards eliminating slavery, and civil and political rights.”

Iran: “We appreciate actions taken by Mauritania to combat contemporary forms of slavery and particularly the establishment of special courts and judicial assistance for victims.”

Iraq: “We welcome reforms to the institutional framework of the country, including reforms to the state with the aim of promoting civil, political and public freedoms for all.”

Jordan: “We welcome the big progress made by Mauritania in the field of human rights including the establishment of the road map to combat all forms of slavery.”

Kuwait: “The report reflects the importance given by Mauritania for the protection of human rights.”

Libya: “We commend the government for respecting its commitments in the field of human rights despite the pandemic.”

Mauritius: “We commend the progress accomplished by Mauritania such as penalizing early marriages and FGM.”

Philippines: “We commend the adoption of laws in the promotion and protection of human rights especially in health, children’s rights, and prevention of trafficking.”

Russia: “The adoption of laws on criminal liability for discrimination, on combating the smuggling of migrants and on combating trafficking in human beings, and a child protection code, deserves a positive assessment.”

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The post Slave-holding Mauritania to win U.N. human rights post appeared first on UN Watch.

President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani

Mauritania’s bid for a seat on the UN’s top human rights body should be rejected, as it fails to meet the basic membership criteria. The election of 14 new countries to the Human Rights Council will be held at the UN in New York tomorrow, October 17, 2019. See our full report on all candidates, and press release.
Regrettably, because the African group only has four candidates running for the same amount of available seats, many ambassadors from the 193 UN member states who will vote on Thursday wrongly assume that they are obliged to endorse Mauritania.
“Electing slave-holding Mauritania as a UN judge on human rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” warned Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, who has led a social media campaign opposing Mauritania.
UN Watch documents Mauritania’s abuses below.
Mauritania’s Human Rights Record
Mauritania commits serious human rights violations, including:

• Torture
• Arbitrary and politically motivated arrests
• Harsh and life-threatening prison conditions
• Restrictions on freedom of assembly, association and religion
• Corruption
• Rape and domestic violence against women
• Ethnic discrimination by government actors
• Criminalization of same-sex conduct
• Slavery
• Human trafficking
• Child labor

Discussion
Mauritania is headed by Mohamed Ould Ghazouani who was elected in June 2019 amidst cries of election irregularities.[1] He follows former President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz who came to power in 2008 through a military coup and was re-elected in 2014 in elections boycotted by the main opposition party due to allegations the electoral process was flawed.[2] Government corruption is widespread at the highest levels.[3]
Following the election results, the government responded harshly to an outbreak of protests, including by shutting down the internet. An opposition leader and two pro-opposition journalists were detained for a week without charge and dozens of opposition activists were also arrested.[4]
Opposition leaders are frequently subjected to arbitrary arrests. In August 2017, Senator Mohamed Ould Ghadda who opposed a measure by then-President Abdel Aziz to dissolve the senate was arrested on bribery charges and held in custody for one year without trial.[5]
Torture in Mauritania’s prisons is common, especially as a method of interrogation to extract confessions.[6] In its recent concluding observations, the Committee Against Torture expressed concern that “torture remains widespread” in Mauritania.[7] In July 2018, Mohamed Ould Brahim died in custody only five hours after being arrested.[8] Other due process violations are also routine, such as prolonged pretrial detention and failure to provide detainees with prompt access to a lawyer.[9]
Mauritania is an Islamic republic which applies Sharia law. Conversion from Islam to another religion results in loss of citizenship; and apostasy is punishable by death. Furthermore, in April 2018, parliament passed a new law strengthening the death penalty for certain blasphemy offenses.[10] The law was strongly criticized by UN human rights experts who expressed outrage that “Mauritanian authorities have decided to enshrine the death penalty for those who express their rights to freedom of expression, religion and belief.”[11]
Journalists who cover sensitive topics such as the military, corruption and slavery are likely to be harassed and engage in self-censorship. For example, in March 2018 a French-Moroccan journalist who was investigating slavery was detained for three days and then expelled. Independent blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed M’Kheitir spent a total of five years in prison for a blog post critical of the Prophet Muhammad, including two years after he had completed his sentence.[12] He was originally sentenced to death for apostasy, but his sentence was commuted to two years in prison on appeal.[13] In March 2019, two bloggers were arrested on slander charges for their reporting on corruption.[14]
Similarly, NGOs, particularly anti-slavery groups are subjected to intimidation and violence, and have difficulty obtaining legal status from the government.[15] The government uses a range of harsh and overbroad criminal laws to prosecute and jail human rights defenders.[16] From August 7 to December 31, 2018, authorities detained Biram Dah Abeid, the president of the anti-slavery group Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement just before he was elected to parliament.[17] Another activist, Abdallah Yali who fights discrimination against the Haratine ethnic group, has been in jail since January 2017 on various criminal charges.[18] On July 22, 2018, the Mauritanian government blocked five activists from traveling to Geneva to participate in the UN Committee Against Torture’s periodic review of Mauritania.
Although the practice of slavery has been criminalized since 2007, it is estimated that there are some 500,000 slaves in Mauritania today. Afro-Mauritanians and members of the Haratine ethnic group suffer widespread discrimination.[20]
According to UNICEF, 37% of girls in Mauritania are married before age 18.[21] The practice of FGM is also common. In addition, women face difficulties reporting rape and sexual assault, as the law favors men and the women themselves would risk prosecution for sexual relations outside of marriage.[22]
Mauritania’s UN Voting Record
Negative: At the General Assembly, Mauritania backed human rights abusers when it supported a resolution denying the right to level sanctions against such regimes, and by voting to delay the work of the Special Rapporteur on violence against LGBT individuals. Mauritania opposed a resolution that spoke out for victims of human rights violations by Syria and abstained on resolutions that spoke out for victims of human rights violations by Iran, North Korea and Russia.

Current members of the U.N. Human Rights Council include:
?? Saudi Arabia
?? China
?? Cuba
?? Somalia
?? Pakistan
?? Iraq
?? Qatar
?? Eritrea
?? DR Congo
?? Afghanistan
?? Bangladesh
?? Cameroon

Next Thursday, they add Libya, Mauritania, Sudan & most likely Venezuela. https://t.co/6ltZEhmnoi
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 11, 2019

[1] Kissima Diagana, Mauritanian court confirms election win for government-backed candidate, Reuters (July 1, 2019), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mauritania-election-court/mauritanian-court-confirms-election-win-for-government-backed-candidate-idUSKCN1TW2XK.
[2] Freedom in the World 2019: Mauritania, Freedom House (2019), https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/mauritania.
[3] Kissima Diagana, Mauritanian court confirms election win for government-backed candidate, Reuters (July 1, 2019), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mauritania-election-court/mauritanian-court-confirms-election-win-for-government-backed-candidate-idUSKCN1TW2XK.
[4] Mauritania: Widespread Arrests to Blunt Backlash Over Election, Human Rights Watch (July 23, 2019), https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/07/23/mauritania-widespread-arrests-blunt-backlash-over-election.
[5] Mauritania: Events of 2018, Human Rights Watch (2019) [Hereinafter “Human Rights Watch Mauritania 2019”], https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/mauritania.
[6] Amnesty International Report 2017/18: Mauritania, Amnesty International (2018) [Hereinafter “Amnesty International Mauritania 2018”], https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/africa/mauritania/report-mauritania/
[7] Concluding observations on the second periodic report of Mauritania, Committee Against Torture, UN Doc. CAT/C/MRT/CO/2 (Sep. 4, 2018), Para. 12.
[8] Freedom in the World 2019: Mauritania, supra note 97.
[9] Amnesty International Mauritania 2019, supra note 101.
[10] Freedom in the World 2019: Mauritania, supra note 97.
[11] Death Penalty: UN experts urge Mauritania to repeal anti-blasphemy law, OHCHR (June 7, 2018), https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23186&LangID=E.
[12] Freedom in the World 2019: Mauritania, supra note 97; Human Rights Watch Mauritania 2019, supra note 100; Freed Mauritanian blogger arrives in Europe amid safety concerns, Middle East Eye (Aug. 5, 2019), https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/freed-mauritanian-blogger-arrives-europe-amid-safety-concerns.
[13] Mauritania: One Year On, Blogger Still Detained, Human Rights Watch (Nov. 8, 2018), https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/11/08/mauritania-one-year-blogger-still-detained.
[14] Mauritanian bloggers face defamation charges for reporting on corruption, advox (April 4, 2019), https://advox.globalvoices.org/2019/04/04/mauritanian-bloggers-face-defamation-charges-for-reporting-on-corruption/; Nasser Weddady, My brother is in jail in Mauritania – for reporting on a massive fraud, Washington Post (April 1, 2019), https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/01/my-brother-is-jail-mauritania-reporting-massive-fraud/?noredirect=on.
[15] Freedom in the World 2019: Mauritania, supra note 97; Human Rights Watch Mauritania 2019, supra note 100.
[16] Mauritania: Repressive Laws Restrict Peaceful Speech, Human Rights Watch (Jan. 17, 2019), https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/01/17/mauritania-repressive-laws-restrict-peaceful-speech.
[17] Id.; Human Rights Watch Mauritania 2019, supra note 100.
[18] Human Rights Watch Mauritania 2019, supra note 100.
[19] Id.
[20] Amnesty International Mauritania 2018, supra note 101.
[21] Mauritania, Girls Not Brides (last visited Sep. 19, 2019), https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/mauritania/.
[22] In conservative Mauritania, confronting sexual violence laws, France 24 (July 3, 2019), https://www.france24.com/en/20190307-conservative-mauritania-confronting-sexual-violence-laws; Philip H. Stewart, The Courage of Women in Mauritania, Human Rights Watch (Sep. 5, 2018), https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/09/05/courage-women-mauritania.

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GENEVA, March 16, 2016 – Prominent Mauritanian anti-slavery activist Abidine Merzough spoke today at the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of UN Watch. He shone a much-needed spotlight on the human rights situation in his native Mauritania, the world’s last bastion of slavery, as the Council decided on the adoption of that country’s UPR report.
Click here for his full statement (in French)
After hearing the remarks made by Mr. Merzough, Mauritania responded to UN Watch with the following statement:
Before switching to Arabic, I’d like to make a few comments and observations on statements made by states and NGOs.
First of all I would say that regarding the death penalty — our country, as you know Mr president, has had a de facto moratorium since 1985. No capital punishment sentence has been carried out since that date.
I’d like to also talk about the fact that slavery has been abolished in Mauritania. Slavery is essentially a crime against humanity. So I don’t know why there are people who continue to think that the phenomenon persists. As you know, our government is working very closely with the Office of the High Commissioner to implement the road map of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery. So, to sum up, the fight against slavery is well underway. I’d like to confirm our determination to eradicate the vestiges of this social phenomenon.

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• Mauritania allows slavery. According to a recent report by the Guardian, “up to 800,000 people in a nation of 3.5 million remain chattels,” with power and wealth overwhelmingly concentrated among lighter-skinned Moors, “leaving slave-descended darker-skinned Moors and black Africans on the edges of society.
• Pakistan turns a blind eye to acid attacks against women, and continues to sentence Christians and minority Muslims to death for blasphemy, including its recent confirmation of Asia Bibi’s verdict.
• Uganda‘s president this year signed into law its ‘Anti-Homosexuality Act,’ one of the harshest in the world, imposing life imprisonment against gays in some cases.
• Zimbabwe continues to harass and intimidate human rights dissidents.

“When the criminals are made the judges, when the arsonists are named as fire-fighters, it’s a travesty of justice. These countries will now exercise power over human rights groups within the world body, and will try to silence their voices,” said Neuer.
“Tragically, the UN’s election today of regimes such as Mauritania — where there are hundreds of thousands living in slavery — sends a message that crass politics trumps basic human rights. The UN is letting down millions of victims around the globe who look to the world body for vital protection,” said Neuer.
ECOSOC’s Power Over UN Human Rights Bodies

• Under the UN Charter, ECOSOC is the sole principal organ mandated to adopt resolutions for the purpose of “promoting respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.”
• The elected regimes will now play a major role in choosing members of the Commission on the Status of Women, the executive of UN Women, and UNICEF, which protects children’s rights.
• ECOSOC is the body that accredits and oversees human rights groups at the UN, deciding who can participate at the UN Human Rights Council. The dominant influence of non-democracies has often led to the rejection or expulsion of human rights groups that dare to criticize China, Cuba or other repressive UN member states, and they have often barred gay rights NGOs.”
• Recent ECOSOC annual sessions debated resolutions on the treatment of prisoners, Internet freedom, discrimination, gender equality and female genital mutilation.
• ECOSOC decides which nations will sit on, among others, the UN Commission for Social Development, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Executive Board of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

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GENEVA, April 23 – The United Nations today elected the Islamic Republic of Iran and more than a dozen other repressive regimes to top committees charged with protecting women’s rights and with overseeing the work of human rights organizations, according to an exclusive report by UN Watch, a non-governmental Geneva-based human rights group.
Human rights activists are expressing outrage.
“Today is a black day for human rights,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “By empowering the perpetrators over the victims, the UN harms the cause of human rights, betrays its founding principles, and undermines its own credibility.”
“Civil society loses as repressive states win election,” said the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR).
Despite the sharp condemnation of Iran’s human rights record by UN chief Ban Ki-moon — who recently reported how women in Iran are “subject to discrimination, entrenched both in law and in practice” and how “women’s rights activists continue to face arrest and persecution” —  the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in New York today elected Iran to a four-year term on its 45-nation Commission on the Status of Women, the principal intergovernmental body dedicated to protecting women’s rights. Equitorial Guinea was among other dictatorships also named to the global gender equality panel.
Meanwhile, in a separate vote today, the UN additionally rewarded Iran by making the regime a member of its powerful 19-nation Committee on NGOs, a coveted position because it allows governments to silence criticism by acting as the gatekeeper and overseer of all human rights groups that seek to work inside the world body.
Other egregious human rights abusers elected to the influential panel include Azerbaijan, China, Cuba, slave-holding Mauritania, Russia, and Sudan, whose leader, President Omar al-Bashir, is wanted by the ICC for genocide. All were deemed “not free” in the 2014 annual survey by Freedom House.
Burundi, Guinea, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Turkey, Venezuela, flagged as problematic and only “partly free” by Freedom House, were also elected.
Impact of Today’s Election: What This Means for NGOs
ISHR had warned earlier this month that the failure of democracies to throw their hat in the ring would mean that “the Committee’s membership will worsen considerably during the next term” and severely harm the freedom of NGOs — even as it praised the election of Greece, Israel, South Africa, Uruguay, and the U.S., countries ranked by the ISHR as “strong, pro civil society candidates,” but who now constitute a tiny opposition.
UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said that NGOs within the UN are now increasingly under threat, citing an incident from last month, as reported in a series of New York Times articles, of how UN security officers protected a UN Watch delegate, daughter of jailed Chinese dissident Wang Bingzhang, from a spying attempt by a Beijing-backed organization bearing NGO credentials.
“The very UN committee that is meant to judge our complaint against this dangerous front group is now stacked more than ever before by China, Sudan and their non-democratic allies, who control some 70 percent of the seats. When the criminals are made the judges — the arsonists named as fire-fighters — it’s a travesty of justice. The crucial role of civil society within the world body is being eroded, its voice at risk of being silenced,” said Neuer.
“Tragically, the UN’s election today of regimes such as Iran, Sudan and Mauritania — governments that rape and torture political prisoners, subjugate women, and commit crimes against humanity from slavery to genocide — sends a message that crass politics trumps basic human rights. The UN is letting down millions of victims around the globe who look to the world body for vital protection,” said Neuer.

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