Anti-Slavery Activists In Mauritania

EDM number 856 in 2016-17, proposed by Mark Durkan on 11/01/2017.
Categorised under the topics of Africa, Human rights and International politics and government.

That this House is dismayed by reports of the continued persecution of anti-slavery activists in Mauritania; is concerned about the welfare of anti-slavery activists who remain in jail following an appeal hearing in November 2016 further to the conviction of 13 anti-slavery activists in August 2016; notes that anti-slavery NGOs have been prevented from registering which has resulted in activists belonging to or representing them being at continual risk of arrest; further notes also that a case taken by two formerly enslaved children from Mauritania to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child is currently being heard; exhorts the Mauritanian government to release all anti-slavery activists from prison immediately and unconditionally to end their persecution and to allow anti-slavery organisations such as the NGO Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement to register; encourages the Mauritanian government and all organs of state to ensure slavery is finally eradicated, including by implementing its domestic and international law; and calls on the Government to do more to end slavery and related practices in Mauritania, including by strengthening the UK's official presence in that country and by advising UK companies seeking to invest there of the dangers of becoming complicit in exploitative working practices.

This motion has been signed by a total of 31 MPs.