Executive Summary
There were no significant changes in the human rights situation in
Mauritania during the year.
Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: arbitrary or
unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings; harsh and life-threatening
prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; arbitrary or unlawful
interference with privacy; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and
media freedom, including unjustified arrests of journalists and enforcement
of a criminal blasphemy law to limit expression; substantial interference
with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association; serious
government corruption; extensive gender-based violence, including
domestic or intimate partner violence, sexual violence, female genital
mutilation/cutting, and other forms of such violence; laws criminalizing
consensual same-sex sexual conduct between adults, which were not
enforced; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex persons; and the existence of
the worst forms of child labor.
The government took steps to identify, investigate, prosecute, and punish
officials who may have committed abuses, but some officials acted withPage 2 of 39
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2023
United States Department of State • Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
impunity. Civil society organizations objected to the scant number of
indictments handed down by authorities.
