| MAURITANIA Islamic Republic of Mauritania Al Jumhuriyah al Islamiyah al Muritaniyah Joined United Nations: 27 October 1961 Human Rights as assured by their constitution Updated 12 December 2012 |
Title I General Provisions, Fundamental Principles
Article 1 [State Integrity, Equal Protection]
(1) Mauritania is an indivisible, democratic, and social Islamic Republic.
(2) The Republic guarantees equality before the law to all of its citizens without distinction as to origin, race, sex, or social condition.
(3) All particularist propaganda of racial or ethnic character shall be punished by the law.
Article 2 [Sovereignty]
(1) The people shall be the source of all power.
(2) The national sovereignty belongs to the people which exercises it through its elected representatives and through referendum.
(3) No fraction of the people nor any individual may claim for itself its exercise.
(4) No partial or total surrender of sovereignty may be decided without the consent of the people.
Article 3 [Electoral Rights]
(1) Suffrage may be either direct or indirect according to the provisions of the law. It shall always be universal, equal, and secret.
(2) All the citizens of the Republic of both sexes, who are adults and possess their civil and political rights, may vote.
Article 4 [Rule of Law]
The law is the supreme expression of the will of the people. All are required to submit to it.
Article 5 [State Religion]
Islam shall be the religion of the people and of the State.
Article 6 [Languages]
The national languages are Arabic, Poular, Soninke, and Wolof; the official language is Arabic.
Article 7 [Capital]
The capital of the State is Nouakchott.
Article 8 [Emblem, Seal, Anthem]
(1) The national emblem is a flag with a crescent and a gold star on a green ground.
(2) The seal of the State and the National Anthem are determined by law.
Article 9 [Motto]
The Motto of the Republic is: "Honor, Fraternity, Justice".
Article 10 [Individual Freedom, Rule of Law]
(1) The State shall guarantee to all its citizens public and individual freedoms:
- the freedom to travel and to settle in all parts of the territory of the Republic;
- the freedom of entry to and of exit from the national territory;
- the freedom of opinion and of thought;
- the freedom of expression;
- the freedom of assembly;
- the freedom of association and the freedom to belong to any political or labor organization of one's choice;
- the freedom of commerce and of industry; and
- the freedom of intellectual, artistic, and scientific creative effort.
(2) Freedom may be limited only by the law.
Article 11 [Political Parties]
(1) Parties and political groups shall work together for the formation of the expression of the political will. They shall be formed and shall
engage in their activities freely provided that they respect democratic principles and that through their objectives or by their actions they
do not undermine the national sovereignty, the territorial integrity, and the unity of the Nation and of the Republic.
(2) The law shall determine the conditions for the creation, the functioning, and the dissolution of political parties.
Article 12 [Public Offices]
All citizens may accede to public office or employment without condition other than those determined by the law.
Article 13 [Presumption of Innocence, Personal Liberty, Privacy, No Violence]
(1) All persons shall be presumed innocent until the establishment of their guilt by a regularly constituted court.
(2) No one may he prosecuted, arrested, detained, or punished except in cases determined by the law and according to the formalities
which it prescribes.
(3) The honor and the private life of the citizen and the inviolability of his person his domicile and his correspondence shall be protected
by the State.
(4) All forms of moral or physical violence shall be proscribed.
Article 14 [Strike]
(1) The right to strike is recognized. It may be exercised within the framework of the laws which regulate it.
(2) Strikes may he forbidden by law for all public services or activities of vital interest to the Nation.
(3) It is forbidden in the areas of national defense and security.
Article 15 [Property]
(1) The right of property shall be guaranteed.
(2) The right of inheritance shall be guaranteed.
(3) The property of the wakf and its foundations are recognized; their use shall be protected by the law.
(4) The law may limit the extent of the exercise of private property if the exigencies of economic and social development require it.
(5) A process of expropriation may be instituted only when public utility demands it and after fair and prior compensation.
(6) The law shall determine the judicial rules for expropriation.
Article 16 [Family]
The State and society shall protect the family.
Article 17 [Duty to Know the Law]
Ignorance of the law shall be no excuse.
Article 18 [Duty to Defence, No Treason]
(1) Every citizen has the duty of protecting and safe-guarding the independence of the country, its sovereignty, and the integrity of its
territory.
(2) Treason, espionage, and going over to the enemy as well as all infractions committed with prejudice to the security of the State shall
be punished with all the rigor of the law.
Article 19 [Obligations]
Every citizen must loyally fulfill his obligations to the national welfare and must respect both public and private property.
Article 20 [Taxation]
(1) The citizens shall be taxed equally.
(2) Each one must share in the public tax burden according to his ability to contribute.
(3) No tax may he instituted except by virtue of a law.
Article 21 [Foreigners]
Any alien who resides legally on national territory enjoys the protection of the law for his person and his property.
Article 22 [Extradition]
No one may he extradited unless it is by virtue of the laws and conventions of extradition.
Article 1 [State Integrity, Equal Protection]
(1) Mauritania is an indivisible, democratic, and social Islamic Republic.
(2) The Republic guarantees equality before the law to all of its citizens without distinction as to origin, race, sex, or social condition.
(3) All particularist propaganda of racial or ethnic character shall be punished by the law.
Article 2 [Sovereignty]
(1) The people shall be the source of all power.
(2) The national sovereignty belongs to the people which exercises it through its elected representatives and through referendum.
(3) No fraction of the people nor any individual may claim for itself its exercise.
(4) No partial or total surrender of sovereignty may be decided without the consent of the people.
Article 3 [Electoral Rights]
(1) Suffrage may be either direct or indirect according to the provisions of the law. It shall always be universal, equal, and secret.
(2) All the citizens of the Republic of both sexes, who are adults and possess their civil and political rights, may vote.
Article 4 [Rule of Law]
The law is the supreme expression of the will of the people. All are required to submit to it.
Article 5 [State Religion]
Islam shall be the religion of the people and of the State.
Article 6 [Languages]
The national languages are Arabic, Poular, Soninke, and Wolof; the official language is Arabic.
Article 7 [Capital]
The capital of the State is Nouakchott.
Article 8 [Emblem, Seal, Anthem]
(1) The national emblem is a flag with a crescent and a gold star on a green ground.
(2) The seal of the State and the National Anthem are determined by law.
Article 9 [Motto]
The Motto of the Republic is: "Honor, Fraternity, Justice".
Article 10 [Individual Freedom, Rule of Law]
(1) The State shall guarantee to all its citizens public and individual freedoms:
- the freedom to travel and to settle in all parts of the territory of the Republic;
- the freedom of entry to and of exit from the national territory;
- the freedom of opinion and of thought;
- the freedom of expression;
- the freedom of assembly;
- the freedom of association and the freedom to belong to any political or labor organization of one's choice;
- the freedom of commerce and of industry; and
- the freedom of intellectual, artistic, and scientific creative effort.
(2) Freedom may be limited only by the law.
Article 11 [Political Parties]
(1) Parties and political groups shall work together for the formation of the expression of the political will. They shall be formed and shall
engage in their activities freely provided that they respect democratic principles and that through their objectives or by their actions they
do not undermine the national sovereignty, the territorial integrity, and the unity of the Nation and of the Republic.
(2) The law shall determine the conditions for the creation, the functioning, and the dissolution of political parties.
Article 12 [Public Offices]
All citizens may accede to public office or employment without condition other than those determined by the law.
Article 13 [Presumption of Innocence, Personal Liberty, Privacy, No Violence]
(1) All persons shall be presumed innocent until the establishment of their guilt by a regularly constituted court.
(2) No one may he prosecuted, arrested, detained, or punished except in cases determined by the law and according to the formalities
which it prescribes.
(3) The honor and the private life of the citizen and the inviolability of his person his domicile and his correspondence shall be protected
by the State.
(4) All forms of moral or physical violence shall be proscribed.
Article 14 [Strike]
(1) The right to strike is recognized. It may be exercised within the framework of the laws which regulate it.
(2) Strikes may he forbidden by law for all public services or activities of vital interest to the Nation.
(3) It is forbidden in the areas of national defense and security.
Article 15 [Property]
(1) The right of property shall be guaranteed.
(2) The right of inheritance shall be guaranteed.
(3) The property of the wakf and its foundations are recognized; their use shall be protected by the law.
(4) The law may limit the extent of the exercise of private property if the exigencies of economic and social development require it.
(5) A process of expropriation may be instituted only when public utility demands it and after fair and prior compensation.
(6) The law shall determine the judicial rules for expropriation.
Article 16 [Family]
The State and society shall protect the family.
Article 17 [Duty to Know the Law]
Ignorance of the law shall be no excuse.
Article 18 [Duty to Defence, No Treason]
(1) Every citizen has the duty of protecting and safe-guarding the independence of the country, its sovereignty, and the integrity of its
territory.
(2) Treason, espionage, and going over to the enemy as well as all infractions committed with prejudice to the security of the State shall
be punished with all the rigor of the law.
Article 19 [Obligations]
Every citizen must loyally fulfill his obligations to the national welfare and must respect both public and private property.
Article 20 [Taxation]
(1) The citizens shall be taxed equally.
(2) Each one must share in the public tax burden according to his ability to contribute.
(3) No tax may he instituted except by virtue of a law.
Article 21 [Foreigners]
Any alien who resides legally on national territory enjoys the protection of the law for his person and his property.
Article 22 [Extradition]
No one may he extradited unless it is by virtue of the laws and conventions of extradition.
Bafours, the original inhabitants of the region yielded to the migration of Berber tribes
emigrating out of North African between the 3rd and 7th Century CE displacing Black
Africans south of the Senegal River. Mauritania is named after the ancient Berber kingdom
of Mauritania though the actual Kingdom was sited south of the Sahara which dominates the
Mauritanian landscape. Islamic warriors had conquered the region by 1076 and over the next
500 years, Berber tribes were ruled by Arabs who established the Moorish caste system.
France colonized Mauritania at the beginning of the 20th Century, outlawing the tribal
custom of slavery. While unsuccessful in centralizing government among the largely
nomadic tribes, their presence encourage the return of many Black Africans who settled in
southern Mauritania. Independence from France was achieved on 28 November 1960 with
the promulgation of a Constitution and a capital being founded at Nouakchott. The
constitution was replace in 1964, establishing a virtual dictatorship. A new constitution was
promulgated in 1991 which ended military rule however fully free elections did not occur
until the passage of the new Constitution in 2006. Human rights are enumerated beginning
with Title One (Title I General Provisions, Fundamental Principles) and conform with the
1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights of which Mauritania is a signatory. For a full
English translation of the Mauritania's Constitution, click here.
emigrating out of North African between the 3rd and 7th Century CE displacing Black
Africans south of the Senegal River. Mauritania is named after the ancient Berber kingdom
of Mauritania though the actual Kingdom was sited south of the Sahara which dominates the
Mauritanian landscape. Islamic warriors had conquered the region by 1076 and over the next
500 years, Berber tribes were ruled by Arabs who established the Moorish caste system.
France colonized Mauritania at the beginning of the 20th Century, outlawing the tribal
custom of slavery. While unsuccessful in centralizing government among the largely
nomadic tribes, their presence encourage the return of many Black Africans who settled in
southern Mauritania. Independence from France was achieved on 28 November 1960 with
the promulgation of a Constitution and a capital being founded at Nouakchott. The
constitution was replace in 1964, establishing a virtual dictatorship. A new constitution was
promulgated in 1991 which ended military rule however fully free elections did not occur
until the passage of the new Constitution in 2006. Human rights are enumerated beginning
with Title One (Title I General Provisions, Fundamental Principles) and conform with the
1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights of which Mauritania is a signatory. For a full
English translation of the Mauritania's Constitution, click here.