Geneva, Switzerland, Oct 16, 2019 / 15:00 pm
Mauritania, the west African nation where slavery remains a widespread practice, is expected to be voted on to the United Nations' Human Rights Council on Thursday.
According to its website, the UNHRC is "an inter-governmental body within the United Nations system responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them."
The UNHRC membership spaces are allocated according to different regions of the world, with some regions only having as many candidate nations as there are slots to fill. For this election, there are four African countries--Libya, Mauritania, Benin, and Sudan--seeking election to the four spots on the Human Rights Council reserved for African nations. This means that they are essentially guaranteed to be elected to the council on Oct. 17.
Mauritania made slavery illegal in 1981, but did not criminalize the practice of owning slaves until 2007. It was the last country to abolish slavery. According to a 2012 CNN report, only one slave owner had been prosecuted for owning another human being since the practice was made illegal.