3) Mr Biram relegated the right to education as a secondary issue, while wrongly asserting
that slavery still exists in my country. With regard to this, I would like to make it clear that
the right to education is guaranteed for all, including ethnic minorities, without
discrimination.
In this context, we established an institute for ethnic minority languages as well as a
department for national languages at the University of Nouakchott.
At the level of the legislation, we passed a law in 2001 that makes primary education
compulsory for all children from age 6. Parents or tutors who would prevent their children
from going to school would be sanctioned.
4) Regarding the issue of slavery, which Mr Biram mentioned, I would like to recall that
slavery has been officially abolished, and a law passed in 2007 criminalises slavery and
sanctions slavery practices.
Last but not least, my government puts a lot of efforts to enable access to education to
children, in particular those from rural areas and vulnerable groups. We implement
socio-economic programmes that fight against the legacy of slavery.
Thank you Madam President.