Imprisonment and Beatings of Anti-Slavery Activists in Mauritania

Oct. 16th 2018

IRA – USA stands in solidarity with Mauritanians beaten and imprisoned for their defense of human rights.

We support the renewed petition hosted by Freedom Now that calls for the release of Biram Dah Abeid from prison and for an end to the police harassment of human rights defenders.

 

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OHIO: trump-led ICE deports Mauritanians

Former Mauritanians are now subject to deportation by the current presidential administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

IRA – USA supports the asylum applications of all persecuted Mauritanians. These individuals have fled from state-sponsored racial violence, slavery, and arbitrary deprivation of citizenship.

IRA – USA joins the Ohio Immigrant Alliance and the immigration attorneys […]

IRA-USA Independent from IRA – Mauritanie

Today IRA – USA announces a new direction for its organization.

IRA – USA has long worked in alliance with Biram Dah Abeid’s organization, IRA – Mauritanie. Together we have worked to free those held in slavery in Mauritania, to empower ex-slaves, to counter the state-racism in Mauritania, and to promote gender equality.

The recent […]

Slave Owners Sentenced to Prison

On March 28th 2018, the special slavery court Nouadhibou, Mauritania sentenced father and son slave owners to 20 years in prison. In the same case, a woman slave owner received a 10 year year sentence. The men, Saleck Ould Amar and his son Hamoudi Ould Saleck, must also pay a fine of 500.000 MRU. […]

New BLASPHEMY Law in Mauritania

Our campaign on behalf of Mohamed Ould Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir finally succeeded. He had been sentenced to death for a blog post that was denounced as blasphemous. This already was a horrible situation, because the point of his blog post was to protest the use of Islam as the basis for caste-based discrimination. Mkhaitir comes […]

The REAL NEWS . Com report on Anti-Slavery Struggle in Mauritania

The Real News network focuses on the long struggle to end slavery in Mauritania and all the many activists who have pushed forward toward emancipation.

Watch their news video here.

VICTORY: Mkhaitir’s Death Sentence Repealed

Mohammed Mkhaitir’s appeal of his death sentence for blasphemy was successful!

The Court of Appeals has reduced his penalty to two years imprisonment. Mkhaitir has been in prison since January 2014, so he should be released for time served.

Here is the press report from Mauritania:

Mauritanie : 2 ans de prison pour le blogueur […]

Forced to Leave Mauritania: Two French Human Rights Researchers

Two French human rights researchers — a journalist and a human rights advocate — were expelled from Mauritania on May 2, 2017. Marie Foray and Tiphanie Gosse had been invited to Mauritania by the Association Mauritanienne pour les Droits de l’Homme (AMDH). Fatimata M’Baye, the President of AMDH, expressed her surprise and embarrassment regarding the […]

Time’s 100 Most Influential: Award to Biram Dah Abeid

IRA – USA is very honored to announce that Biram Dah Abeid is among Time Magazine’s “100 most influential” people in the world today.

Anti-Slavery International’s president, Aidan McQuade, writes that Biram “is an inspiration to thousands who continue to resist slavery in Mauritania and beyond.”

IRA – USA was established at the request of […]

Diop Speaks from Prison: Police Beat Many Of Us

Amadou Tidjane Diop spoke with IRA USA today from his prison cell in Dar Na-im prison, Nouakchott. Dar Na-im is the general prison for violent offenders. He reports that he was not beaten, but many among the IRA prisoners suffered immensely from repeated beatings by the police.

The IRA prisoners were brought to court in […]

Success through Working Together

We are very happy that the IRA President, Biram Dah Abeid, and Vice – President Brahim Bilal Ramdhane, are finally freed from jail.

The number of individuals and organizations who worked together to protest the jailing of these leading anti-slavery activists is huge. IRA USA is very proud to be counted among the IRA community […]

Supreme Court Appeal in Mauritania: Effort to Up-End Two Year Prison Term

The lawyers’ collective for the defense of Biram Dah Abeid, Djiby Sow and Brahim Bilal Ramdhane today announced in a press conference that they would appeal the recent ruling that upheld the two year prison sentence for these three men.

These anti-slavery activists were sentenced for resisting public order in an anti-slavery demonstration on November […]