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Mauritania

Barometer

Retentionist
Country status
168+
Sentenced
0
Execution(s)
31+
Conviction(s)
Figures for the year 2025. The last execution in Mauritania was in 1987. In December 2024, Mauritania voted against the United Nations resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, thereby changing its status to ‘retentionist’ according to ECPM’s methodology.

Our partners in the field

Logo AMDH Mauritanie
Mauritanian Association for Human Rights
Mauritania
Logo RAFAH Mauritanie
RAFAH
Mauritania

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All reports

Abolition process
Overview 2025 – The process of abolishing the death penalty in member states of the OIC
Jan 2026
Human Rights Protection Mechanisms
Summary report on the death penalty for the Universal Periodic Review of Mauritania (2026)
Sep 2025
Human Rights Protection Mechanisms
Mauritania, 37th session, Alternative report in the view of the universal periodic review, death penalty, 2020 (French)
Oct 2022
Human Rights Protection Mechanisms
Mauritania, Alternative report submitted to the Human Rights Committee for consideration of the periodic report 126th session July 2019 (French)
Oct 2022
Conditions of detention
Prison in the Land of Sands: Death Penalty, Conditions of Detention and Treatment of Death Row Prisoners, Mauritania (French, Arabic)
Oct 2022
Human Rights Protection Mechanisms
Alternative report on the death penalty for the review of Mauritania before the ACHPR (2022)
Sep 2022
Abolition process
The process of abolishing the death penalty in member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
Oct 2020

All tools

Africa and the death penalty
Infographics – The death penalty in Mauritania (2025)
Table – Voting trends on the UN resolution calling for a universal moratorium
Leaflet – UN resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty
Infographics – the death penalty in Mauritania (2024)
Monitoring conditions of detention of prisoners sentenced to death: pratical guide for NHRIs and NPMs
Video – The death penalty in Mauritania (2023)
The AMDH (Association mauritanienne des droits de l'Homme), ECPM's partner in Mauritania, and ECPM, are calling on the Mauritanian government to seriously consider the death penalty situation in the country. While the number of death sentences had remained more or less stable, it exploded in 2021, with 60 death sentences handed down. By 2023, a total of at least 163 people on death row were in prison, including one woman and 18 foreigners.
Infographics – the death penalty in Mauritania (2022)
The death penalty in law and in practice in Mauritania
Abolition of the death penalty: A practical guide for NHRIs
Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia : from moratorium to abolition of the death penalty

All news

Rosalie ECPM de dos dans la Pride 2024 avec des ballons et des pancartes
Advocacy, Event
Pride Month: 12 states in the world still provide the death penalty for homosexuality in their penal codes
02 June 2025
June is celebrated as Pride Month worldwide and is an opportunity to remember the importance of defending human rights, particularly the right to life and freedom. Members of the LGBTQIA+ community are especially vulnerable to violations of their fundamental rights. In Africa, the Middle East and Asia, legislation in some…
cover 10 arguments for the abolition in arabic
Editorial / opinion page
ECPM publishes 10 arguments against the death penalty in Arabic
02 March 2022
As part of its project co-funded by the European Union, Norway and the French Development Agency, ECPM is publishing a leaflet against the death penalty in Arabic. The leaflet aims to strengthen awareness and advocacy among Arabic-speaking interlocutors and is available both print and online.
cover publication
Publication
The process of abolishing the death penalty in member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)
26 November 2020
As the 47th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers organised by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is being held in Niamey, Niger, on 27 and 28 November 2020, ECPM and Nael Georges publish the study The process of abolishing the death penalty in member states of the Organisation…
Mauritania cover mission
Editorial / opinion page, In the field
ECPM welcomes the release of Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir after more than a year and a half of incommunicado detention [Press release]
03 August 2019
After five years of detention, almost two of which spent incommunicado, Mauritanian blogger Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mkhaitir was finally released on Monday 29 July and is now, since Friday 2 August, in safety in Europe. On Monday, July 8, President Ould Abdel Aziz met with a commission of ulemas to…
In the field, Publication
ECPM and AMDH participated in the 126th session of the United Nations Human Rights Committee
18 July 2019
On 4 and 5 July 2019, representatives of ECPM (Ensemble contre la peine de mort) and the Mauritanian Human Rights Association (AMDH) were in Geneva to follow up on the recommendations made in the Fact-Finding Mission Report. Prior to the session, the AMDH, ECPM and Planète Réfugiés Droits de l’Homme…
edito flyer
Editorial / opinion page
EDITO – Death Row Investigations: ECPM Expertise
27 June 2019
ECPM’s expertise in death row investigations has been in place for many years around the world. Our investigation in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2005 had already received the French Republic Human Rights Prize. The one in Rwanda, carried out in 2007, was cited by the Kagame government as…
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