The Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement (IRA or IRA-Mauritania; French: ''Initiative pour la Resurgence du mouvement Abolitioniste'') is an
anti-slavery
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The Britis ...
group in
Mauritania
Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...
headed by
Biram Dah Abeid
Biram Ould Dah Ould Abeid ( ar, بيرام ولد الداه ولد اعبيدي; born 12 January 1965) is a Mauritanian politician and advocate for the abolition of slavery. He was listed as one of "10 People Who Changed the World You Might Not ...
. Mauritania is estimated to have between 140,000
and 600,000 slaves. The group has a "network of nine thousand activists" according to journalist Alexis Okeowo.
[
The group was founded in 2008 and is described by Abeid as "an organization of popular struggle".][ The group fights against the religious justification
of slavery.][
According to Abeid, the group moved on to more direct action in its protests because, “whenever we brought a slavery case to the police, they would release the slave owner.” In 2010 and 2011, the group won a "seminal victory" when it gathered in front of the house of a slave owner and demanded the police arrest him. Both Abeid and the slave owner were arrested—Abeid jailed for three months, the slave owner was released after nine days—but it was the first time that police in Mauritania had imprisoned a slave owner. Other protests and arrests of owners followed (the organization has helped to put about twenty owners in jail as of September 2014). Though the jailings were often only for brief terms, the release of "thousands of slaves" (called "Biram Frees") by fearful owners ensued.][
The Initiative feels under pressure from the Mauritanian government which refuses to allow it to register as a nongovernmental organization, and threatened or persuaded supporter to end their support. Lacking NGO status makes it impossible to solicit funding through grants. IRA has relied on gifts from patrons, mainly government employees. The government has persuaded other activists to leave the movement, threatening them or winning them over with lucrative state jobs.][
IRA-Mauritania received the ]Human Rights Tulip
The Human Rights Tulip ( nl, Mensenrechtentulp) is an annual prize awarded by the Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs to a human rights defender or organisation who promotes and supports human rights in innovative ways. The Human Rights Tulip was est ...
award in December 2015.
See also
*Slavery in Mauritania
Slavery has been called "deeply rooted" in the structure of the northwestern African country of Mauritania, and "closely tied" to the ethnic composition of the country, despite the ending of slavery across other African countries and colonial owne ...
*Slavery in Africa
Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa. Systems of servitude and slavery were common in parts of Africa in ancient times, as they were in much of the rest of the ancient world. When the trans-Saharan slave trade, Indian Ocean sl ...
*Slavery in modern Africa
The continent of Africa is one of the regions most rife with contemporary slavery. Slavery in Africa has a long history, within Africa since before historical records, but intensifying with the trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean slave trade and a ...
References
{{reflist
Abolitionism in Africa
Slavery in Africa
Human rights organisations based in Mauritania
Organizations established in 2008