CCPR/C/129/D/2970/2017
to admit the request made by the author and thus asked the State party not to deport her to
Mauritania while it considered the communication.
1.3
On 29 September 2017 and 3 January 2018, the State party asked the Committee to
lift the request for interim measures that the Committee had made on the author’s behalf. On
15 February 2019, the Committee, acting through the Special Rapporteur on new
communications and interim measures, decided to grant the State party’s request by lifting
its request to stay the author’s deportation.
The facts as submitted by the author
2.1
The author is a member of the Oulad Bessba tribe, a Moorish tribe of high status in
Mauritanian society. In 2009, she met her future husband, A.C.C., a descendant of the
Haratine, a tribe whose members were once slaves and who, although now legally
emancipated, continue to experience racial and social discrimination. A.C.C. has been
involved in fighting discrimination since 1998, and in 2008 he founded an association called
SOS esclaves. Because of his activism, he has been subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention
and acts of torture. The author points out that it is still dangerous, even today, for activists to
speak out publicly about discrimination in Mauritania.1 The author and A.C.C. met as a result
of their shared interest in combating inequality and decided to see each other in secret.
2.2
In February 2011, with the author pregnant, the couple married without the consent
of her family. When her family found out about their marriage, the author was kidnapped,
beaten and forced to fast by her brothers, resulting in a miscarriage. Her husband was
persecuted and forced to leave the country. He then took refuge in the United States of
America.
2.3
In March 2013, the author travelled to the United States with her uncle for medical
treatment. It was then that she found out her husband was there. After returning to Mauritania,
she did everything she could to be able to join him there. In June 2013, she managed to return
to the United States and move in with her husband. In August 2013, she was pregnant again
but had a difficult pregnancy. Her husband, who worked long hours, could not give her the
support she needed, so she decided to join her sisters in Canada. While she was in Canada,
her husband obtained refugee status in the United States and filed a claim for his wife and
son.
2.4
On 21 November 2013, the author claimed asylum in Canada. In May 2014, her son
was born in Canada and became a Canadian citizen. On 10 June 2014, the Refugee Protection
Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada dismissed the author’s application
for asylum, finding it lacked credibility, including in respect of the alleged problems arising
from her relationship with her husband. On 7 October 2014, the Federal Court refused to
review the Board’s decision.
2.5
In December 2014, the author applied for permanent resident status on humanitarian
grounds. Her application was dismissed on 21 November 2016. The authorities of the State
party found, in particular, that the best interests of the child and the situation in the author’s
country of origin did not warrant acceptance of her application. They noted that the child was
still too young to have established significant ties in Canada and that what was in his interest
was, first and foremost, to be with his parents. In addition, as the author was not from a
disadvantaged background, the official responsible for assessing her application concluded
that the child would not face the problems that she had raised, which were “mainly the lot of
poor children”. The author then applied for leave and judicial review of the decision not to
grant her permanent resident status on humanitarian grounds, but this application was
dismissed by the Federal Court on 23 May 2017.
2.6
In parallel with the other steps she took, on 19 June 2015 the author submitted an
application for a pre-removal risk assessment. This was dismissed on 18 November 2016 on
the grounds that she had not shown that she would be at risk of torture, persecution or cruel,
1
2
See Amnesty International, “Mauritania: Jailed presidential candidate and anti-slavery activists must
be released”, 15 January 2015; and Amnesty International, “Mauritania must stop targeting antislavery activists”, press release, 12 November 2014.
GE.21-00740