The African Union on Friday called on Mauritania to do more towards the elimination of slavery after a court in the country handed out lenient sentences to a family of slave owners in a landmark conviction.
Two brothers, Said Ould Salem and Yarg, were born into slavery in the northwest African nation, and were forced to work each day from an early age by a wealthy family, rights campaigners said.
Their owner was found guilty in the country’s first ever prosecution for slavery in 2011, but was only sentenced to two years in prison, even though the law stipulates that offenders be handed between five to ten years, U.K.-based Anti-Slavery International said.
The man is yet to be jailed pending appeal, while other members of the family walked free, the campaign group added.
In a statement, an AU committee of experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child said that all members of the family ought to have been given sentences commensurate to their crimes.
It also urged Mauritania to “give due regard to the issue of slavery and make the elimination… one of its priorities.”
The AU also recommended that Said and Yarg, now teenagers, be given psychosocial support, schooling and compensation.
Mauritania was the last country to abolish slave trade in 1981, and is said to have the highest rates of slavery worldwide. 1 in 100 people in the country live as slaves according to the 2016 Global Slavery Index.
The vice is a historical practice in the country, where dark-skinned ethnic groups make up the main “slave caste”, often working as domestic servants and cattle herders.
Mauritania is due to host two high-level AU meetings this year, and rights campaigners hope these could increase pressure to bring an end to slavery in the country.
