A/HRC/26/49/Add.1 centre of the Gorgol region in the South. The incidents, which occurred on 7 July 2013, involved individuals from the Moorish and Peulh communities, and left 21 people injured and 15 shops looted, with 29 individuals arrested. Local authorities informed the Special Rapporteur that, although this was the fourth incident of the kind, there was a much more heightened ethnic dimension than in previous events, reflecting the mounting tensions between the Moors and the Afro-Mauritanian communities during the election process. According to information received, violence erupted in the city’s main market after a young Moorish man assaulted an older Peulh woman, triggering anger among some Peulh people present at the scene, who attempted to retaliate by targeting the Moorish shop holders in the area. It was also reported that in the days following the incident members of the Touche pas à ma nationalité movement gathered in front of the police station where the young Moorish man had been held to demand that he be duly brought to justice and not released. An added complication, as explained by some interlocutors, was the increasing instrumentalization of isolated incidents that were then turned into ethnically polarized confrontations. The underlying ethnic discrimination, according to some interlocutors, was evident in the official response to these events in that the victims from the Moorish communities affected by these incidents had already received some form of compensation and support, whereas the Afro-Mauritanian economic operators who lost assets and profit as a result of the incidents of 1989 had not.4 III. Legislation 11. Mauritania is a State party to eight of the core international human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination and international treaties prohibiting slavery and forced labour including child labour. In addition Mauritania has been a State Party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights since ratifying the Charter in 1986. 12. With regard to the domestic legal system, in 2008, Mr. Diène recommended that, in order to focus on the central role of social multiculturalism and strengthen the ongoing drive towards democracy, the Constitution should be amended to include the affirmation that Mauritanian society is built on democratic, egalitarian and participatory multiculturalism, and the recognition of the main ethnic groups or communities in society and their languages and cultures (A/HRC/11/36/Add.2). 13. The Special Rapporteur was pleased to note that the Constitution had indeed been amended to this effect. In addition to article 1 of the Constitution of 1991, which guarantees equality before the law to all citizens without any distinction as to origin, race, sex or social condition, article 2, as revised by Law No. 15 of 2012, sets forth that the people of Mauritania, united throughout history by shared moral and spiritual values and aspiring to a common future, recognize and proclaim their cultural diversity, the basis of national unity and social cohesion, and its corollary, the right to be different. 14. Given that language policies have contributed to polarizing the various communities, Mr. Diène also recommended that, in addition to Arabic, Pular, Soninke and Wolof should be given constitutional status as official languages (A/HRC/11/36/Add.2). While article 6 of the Constitution recognizes Arabic, Pular, Soninke and Wolof as national languages, it still provides that the official language is Arabic. 4 Submission from the Collectif des opérateurs économiques victimes des évènements de 1989 en République Islamique de Mauritanie. 5