A/HRC/26/49/Add.1 I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Mutuma Ruteere, undertook an official visit to Mauritania from 2 to 8 September 2013 at the invitation of the Government. During his visit, he held meetings in Nouakchott, Rosso and Kaedi. He met the highest government representatives, at the national and local levels, as well as representatives of civil society, non-governmental organizations, human rights defenders and victims of human rights violations including slavery-like practices and ethnic and descent-based discrimination. 2. The Special Rapporteur would like to thank the Government of Mauritania for its invitation and the cooperation provided before and during this visit. He would also like to thank all the authorities he met for the insightful and detailed discussions. He is grateful for the fruitful discussions with the civil society organizations and to the victims who courageously shared their stories with him. He would also like to thank the United Nations country team, and particularly the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, for their invaluable support and the exchanges he had with them. 3. The Special Rapporteur visited Mauritania to evaluate progress made since his predecessor, Doudou Diène, first visited the country in 2008, to obtain an up-to-date understanding of the situation regarding the elimination of ethnic and descent-based discrimination, and to identify the remaining challenges, with a view to providing constructive recommendations which it is hoped will assist the Government in advancing its fight against racial and ethnic discrimination. 4. The Special Rapporteur appreciated this opportunity to assess the compliance of Mauritania with its international obligations and the implementation of the recommendations made by the various human rights mechanisms. In this regard he would like once again to commend the Government for acceding to many international human rights instruments. The cooperation between Mauritania, and international human rights mechanisms, special procedures, treaty bodies and the universal periodic review must also be acknowledged. There is no doubt, in the Special Rapporteur’s opinion, that there has been real progress in the implementation of some of the recommendations made by human rights mechanisms. Yet he found that a number of challenges still persist and should be addressed as a matter of priority. Achievements and challenges identified in the Special Rapporteur’s findings are further described in the sections below. II. Context 5. Mauritania is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural country with an estimated population of 3,542,000,1 the majority of whom live in rural communities, have very precarious livelihoods and are heavily dependent on agriculture and pastoralism. The population can be divided into two groups: the Moors, including the black moors (Haratines) and the AfroMauritanians, including the Peuhl, Soninke, Wolof and Bambara. Most of the nongovernmental stakeholders whom the Special Rapporteur met reported that the Arab-Moors dominate participation in political and economic life, whereas the majority of the population, mainly represented by the other two groups, have been de facto systematically excluded. This situation has kept these groups in a very precarious condition of poverty and 1 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics, Education (all levels) profile – Mauritania (2013). 3