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	Enforcing Mauritania’s Anti-Slavery Legislation by Carla Clarke Senior Legal Officer at Minority Rights Group   I realised that our life was not normal. It was not like the lives of the other children because the other children were called by their name, but me, they called ‘slave’. I was not treated like a person … For me, liberty is life, so that a person can work, can speak openly. Being a slave you don’t have this.   The words of a Mauritanian boy who now lives in freedom but who was born into slavery in 2000.   When speaking about slavery today, many talk about ‘modern forms of slavery’ and ‘slavery like practices,’ referring to exploitative and dehumanising practices such as human trafficking, women and girls forced into prostitution, adults and children working in sweatshops or in the agricultural sector for gangmasters.   In Mauritania, however, a more traditional form of slavery, known as descent-based slavery, persists where slaves are the property of their masters and mistresses and children born to a woman or girl in slavery automatically become slaves at birth. Such children are expected to start helping with the domestic chores or the herding of livestock as soon as they are able, are unlikely to attend school, will not have time to play or rest days, will only eat the family’s leftovers, will regularly be beaten, will not be paid for their work and, will often, in the case of girls, be raped and go on to have children who in turn are also slaves. In short, they will be denied their childhood and their very personhood.   And yet, slavery was officially abolished in Mauritania in 1981 (the last country in the world to do so), was made a criminal offence in 2007, and was recognised as a crime against humanity in the country’s constitution in 2012. However, the gulf between legal measures and daily reality couldn’t be greater in a country where slavery is so deeply and culturally engrained, and where the government, judiciary and police are dominated by the traditional slave owning class, with vested interests in maintaining a system which privileges them.   The lack of enforcement of the 2007 law criminalising slavery, and the obstacles faced at every stage of the criminal justice system by those victims who do seek to bring a criminal complaint, is the subject of a recent report produced by a group of international and Mauritanian NGOs funded primarily by the Freedom Fund . The report is extremely timely given that the 2007 anti-slavery law was repealed in September 2015 and replaced by a new, seemingly tougher, law.   Passing legislation, however, is not enough. The true measure of the Mauritanian government’s commitment to eradicating descent-based slavery lies in how well it enforces the new legislation through addressing the multiple obstacles identified in the report. Only when slave-owners realise that they cannot continue owning slaves with impunity will a centuries-old practice, universally recognised as a gross violation of human rights, be finally brought to an overdue end.   http://minorityrights.org/2015/12/08/enforcing-mauritanias-anti-slavery-legislation-the-continued-failure-of-the-justice-system-to-prevent-protect-and-punish/ Visit the related web page
	Corporate Legal Accountability by Amnesty, ESCR-Net, FIDH, agencies   Corporate Accountability. (Amnesty International)   Globalization has changed the world we live in. It presents new and complex challenges for the protection of human rights.   Economic players, especially multinational companies that operate across national borders, have gained unprecedented power and influence across the world.   Companies have an enormous impact on people’s lives and the communities in which they operate. Sometimes the impact is positive - jobs are created, new technology improves lives and investment in the community translates into real benefits for those who live there.   But Amnesty has exposed countless instances when corporations exploit weak and poorly enforced domestic regulation with devastating effect on people and communities.   There are few effective mechanisms at national or international level to prevent corporate human rights abuses or to hold companies to account. Amnesty is working to change this.   In Bodo Creek in Ogoniland, Nigeria, two oil spills (August/December 2008) destroyed thousands of livelihoods. Oil poured from faults in the Trans-Niger Pipeline for weeks, covering the area in a thick slick of oil.   Amnesty and our partner, the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development, worked with the community to get the oil company responsible - Shell - to clean up its mess and pay proper compensation. Finally in December 2014, the Bodo community won a long-awaited victory when Shell paid out an unprecedented £55million in compensation after legal action in the UK.   “We are thankful to all that have contributed in one way or another to the conclusion of this case such as the various NGOs, especially Amnesty International, who have come to our aid.” said Chief Sylvester Kogbara, Chairman of the Bodo Council of Chiefs and Elders.   States have a responsibility to protect human rights. However, many are failing to do this, especially when it comes to company operations - whether because of lack of capacity, dependence on the company as an investor or outright corruption.   Companies operating across borders are often involved in severe abuses, such as forced labour or forcibly relocating communities from their lands.   Unsurprisingly, abuses are particularly stark in the extractive sector, with companies racing against each other to mine scarce and valuable resources. Traditional livelihoods are destroyed as land is contaminated and water supplies polluted such as in Ogoniland, Nigeria. The impact can be particularly severe for Indigenous Peoples because their way of life and their identity is often closely related to their land.   Affected communities are frequently denied access to information about the impact of company operations. Meaning they are excluded from participating in decisions that affect their lives.   Although it is now widely accepted that corporations have a responsibility to respect human rights, too many times profits are built on the back of human rights abuses. Despite laws in many countries that allow companies to be prosecuted, governments rarely even investigate corporate wrongdoing.   When communities’ attempt to get justice they are thwarted by ineffective legal systems, a lack of access to information, corruption and powerful state-corporate alliances. Worryingly, when the poor cannot secure justice, companies learn that they can exploit poverty without consequences.   What Amnesty is calling for:   Prevention: all companies should be required by law to take steps to identify, prevent and address human rights abuses (known as due diligence). Accountability: companies must be held to account for abuses they commit. Remedy: people whose rights have been abused by companies must be able to access justice and effective remedy. Protect rights beyond borders: companies operate across borders, so the law must also operate across borders to protect people’s rights.   The accountability gap   Companies have lobbied governments to create international investment, trade and tax laws that protect corporate interests. But the same companies frequently argue against any development in international law and standards to protect human rights in the context of business operations.   Companies are taking advantage of weak regulatory systems, especially in developing countries, and it is often the poorest people who are most at risk of exploitation. Governments are obliged to protect people from human rights abuses, this includes abuses committed by companies. All companies must be regulated to prevent the pursuit of profit at the expense of human rights.   Expert Legal Group to consult around the world, for a Treaty on human rights and corporate activities: Project Launch 2015-2016   FIDH, together with The Corporate Accountability Working Group (CAWG) of the International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net), announced the launch of a joint two-year project to bring together legal experts from all regions to work on concrete propositions towards a binding treaty on business and human rights.   Following consultations in all major regions of the world with activists, academics, groups representing affected people and others in civil society, will work to develop clear legal proposals that shape and reflect their perspectives.   These proposals will form workable content for the elaboration of a robust and feasible international treaty, in order to address corporate related human rights violations taking into account the realities faced by rights-holders. Experts members of the LG are members and partners of ESCR-Net and FIDH, and reflect gender and geographic balance.   FIDH and ESCR-Net co-hosted a regional consultation with Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) in Bangkok, in May 2015. Other consultations will be held in other major regions throughout 2015 and 2016, supporing sub-national, national and regional groups to develop strategies that encourage their states to engage, and also to consider how the international treaty process can be leveraged to support advocacy efforts to strengten national and regional legal and policy frameworks.   FIDH and ESCR-Net (which together have a combined membership of close to 450 human rights organizations and individual activists, in more than half the countries of the world) have been central to calls to strenghten the international legal framework for more than a decade, with more than 600 organisations in over 90 countries, calling for the development of an open-ended intergovernmental working group with a mandate to develop an international legally binding instrument that can effectively address corporate human rights abuses and ensure effective accountability and redress mechanisms are available.   The project follows the successful passage of the Human Rights Council Resolution 26/9 in June 2014, which established a new UN Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) with a mandate to develop a treaty related to human rights, transnational corporations and other business enterprises.   http://www.escr-net.org/treaty-initiative/new-expert-legal-group-consult-around-world-then-develop-content-proposals-treaty http://www.escr-net.org/news/2015/joint-oral-statement-scope-legally-binding-instrument-tncs-and-other-business-enterprises http://bit.ly/2P4VzD1 http://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/corporate-accountability/ http://business-humanrights.org/en/corporate-legal-accountability http://business-humanrights.org/en/ohchr-accountability-and-remedy-project http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Pages/OverviewOfProjects.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Business/Pages/OHCHRstudyondomesticlawremedies.aspx Visit the related web page
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