The Open Society Justice Initiative hosted a brown-bag lunch, "Mauritanian Expellees: How Ethnic Discrimination Culminated in Denationalization."
In 1989, an ethnic and political conflict in Mauritania resulted in the denationalization and expulsion of over 50,000 black Mauritanians. Today, between 50,000 and 70,000 of these expellees live in neighboring Senegal and Mali in legal limbo and with almost no rights. This case offers the clearest contemporary example of a global problem: the arbitrary denial or deprivation of citizenship, and the rights associated with it, to ethnic or racial minorities. It is also illustrative of the limitations of the current international human rights regime.
The Justice Initiative's Julia Harrington, senior legal officer for Equality and Citizenship, and Angela Khaminwa, project coordinator for the Africa Citizenship and Discrimination Audit, discussed the role played by ethnic discrimination in the denationalization of the black Mauritanian population, the successes and failures of international human rights litigation and advocacy, and the road ahead.
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