MAURITANIA: DESPITE PROGRESS, WOMEN AND GIRLS’ LIVES STILL BEING SACRIFICED, SAY UN EXPERTS

Mauritania has made significant efforts to empower women and girls by increasing the electoral gender quota and legislation prohibiting harmful practices such as child marriage and female genital mutilation, but gaps remain and continue to hamper progress, UN experts have warned. “…., patriarchal oppression coupled with the socio-economic constraints of the country hold women and girls back in Mauritanian society,” said the UN Working Group on discrimination against women and girls at the end of a visit to the country.