The United States welcomes recent steps to implement the Roadmap for the Eradication of the Vestiges of Slavery, including the Ulema’s fatwa issued March 30 and the Cabinet’s proposed amendments to the law on slavery issued April 2.
We await the decision on the appeal of the legal proceedings against Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid, President of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA), IRA Vice President Brahim Bilal Ramdhane, and Djiby Sow, President of Kawal e Yelitaare. We once again urge the appellate court to review both the convictions and the sentencing without delay, and to handle these important cases in a fair, impartial, and transparent manner.
The United States remains committed to continuing our support of the efforts by the Mauritanian government and civil society to eliminate slavery and its vestiges in Mauritania, which must be a sustained and collective effort by government, religious, law enforcement, judicial, traditional, and civil society leaders together with all Mauritanians.
