Mauritania: slow but steady walk to democracy

Mauritania has been in the news lately over the hot-button issue of slavery. Last year the American satellite news channel CNN broadcast a documentary titled Mauritania, Slavery’s Last Stronghold, a searing indictment of the country’s weak efforts to end modern forms of slavery such as forced labour, child labour and human trafficking. Also last year, the Global Slavery Index, an organization that tracks the phenomenon, named Mauritania as having proportionally the highest prevalence of slaves in the world. With up to 140,000 persons said to be enslaved in the country, the UN Security Council established a tribunal last February to prosecute those responsible for the practice.