2016 ITUC Global Rights Index - Mauritania

Dock workers' strike repressed: In early April 2016, the police in Nouakchott repressed a rally and a march held by striking dock workers. Two trade union representatives, including the secretary of the local branch of the CGTM, Seyedna Ould Mohamed, were arrested and held in police custody. The dock workers at the Port of Nouakchott launched a strike on 4 April. They also managed to thwart the port management's attempts to impose a trade union they did not support and that was opposed to the strike as a negotiating partner.

Anti-slavery activism severely repressed: On 27 January 2016, the local authorities of Dar Naim prohibited the holding of a rally organised by the Confédération Libre des Travailleurs de Mauritanie (CLTM) with the support of the Spanish agency for international development cooperation, AECID. They claimed that the decision had been taken due to the "political" nature of the rally, although it was simply intended to mark the launch of an awareness-raising campaign on slavery. The country continues to be severely affected by this scourge, both in its traditional and its contemporary forms. During 2015, the trade union centres received daily complaints from Mauritanian women returning from Saudi Arabia, where they had been the victims of human trafficking. The trade unions also alerted the ITUC and other international trade union organisations that hundreds of Mauritanian women continue to be trapped in forced labour in Saudi Arabia. A vigorous trade union campaign was therefore launched. Although Mauritania has continued to strengthen its legal arsenal designed to fight slavery – it was among the first countries to ratify the ILO Protocol of 2014 against forced labour – in practice, the exploiters are rarely troubled. By contrast, three well-known anti-slavery activists were arrested in November 2014 and condemned, in 2015, to two years in prison.

Negotiations abandoned at SNIM, police repression at union meeting: On 6 November, in Zouérat, the authorities tried to stop SNIM workers from holding a general meeting. As the workers made their way to the place where the meeting was due to take place, the police stood in their path. According to the Confédération Générale des Travailleurs de Mauritanie (CGTM), the police barricade was not able to stop the workers from reaching the trade union office. The police, however, continued with their acts of provocation, using teargas bombs in the room where the meeting was being held. At the beginning of 2015, the SNIM had seen the longest strike in its history. It had ended on 3 April with a commitment from the management to hold negotiations on the workers' demands, but at the beginning of November it had still not honoured its pledge. The general meeting had been organised to enable the workers' representatives to report on their frustrated attempts to move forward with the negotiations and to decide what action to take.