Choueida Mint Mbarek Salem, the case of Oumoulkhair Mind yarba and her children, or the case
of Khaidama whose daughter was given in marriage to her husband).
For all these victims, no action has been taken by the authorities after receipt of the complaint
despite our association’s advocacy and the speedy reply required by law. Masters are usually not
arrested, or when they are, they are conditionally released, or simply acquitted.
For descendants of slavery, the Haratins, the status of descendant of slaves implies social
discrimination and stigmatisation that limit their access to education, training, and economic
opportunities. They remain marginalised, discriminated and helpless against judicial institutions.
2.2. Regarding national minorities like the Haalpulaar, the Soninke, and the Wolof, the use of
Arabic in judicial institutions is a major hurdle to understanding justice reports both by
perpertrators and victims, because interpretation services are not systematically set up and
trained in all national languages. The plaintiff never has the chance to talk directly in the court,
the working language being Arabic. Vague interpretations strip the complainants’ words of their
substance.
Women and young people are rounded up and crammed in police stations for days and nights on
end as a result of racial profiling, simply because they are black, they may be foreigners, because
they do not speak Arabic or the Moorish dialect.
The absence of local jurisdiction for minorities contributes to an atmosphere of mistrust towards
the judiciary since these consist of Arabic-speaking people only. The absence of
awareness-raising and dissemination of laws in the national languages deprives minorities of the
opportunity to understand and defend their rights.
Authorities in charge of investigations in criminal justice are not trained on minority rights nor on
minority languages, history and cultures.
3. Recommendations:
Ask the state to apply the provisions of the law on legal aid, so that victims of
enslavement and minorities truly have access to justice;
Train magistrates and other staff of the judiciary in national languages, so as to bring
justice closer to minorities;
Demand that interpreters specialised in the judicial realm be present and trained, until
the official inclusion of national languages;
Intensify law dissemination campaigns in the languges of minorities.