18 Jun 2014 Growing concern for safety of Mauritanian human rights activist

International Ambassadors of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) and WACC General Secretary Dr Karin Achtelsetter are calling on the GMMP network to express their solidarity with Ms. Aminetou Mint El Moctar.

A decorated human rights activist, Aminetou Mint El Moctar chairs the Association of female heads of household (l’Association des femmes chefs de famille), a non-governmental organisation that promotes human rights and defends the rights of women and children.

She is also the country coordinator of the Global Media Monitoring Project in Mauritania.

According to information from the International Federation for Human Rights, the leader of a radical Muslim group “Ahbab Errassoul” (“Friends of the Prophet”) Mr Yadhih Ould Dahi issued a fatwa on June 6, 2014 calling for her death.

Former WACC President Dr Musimbi Kanyoro commenting on the situation underlined the hazards women human rights defenders encounter in the course of their work. “Women human rights defenders face additional risks because of the very nature of the problems they work to address, which require questioning and transforming social norms and taboos,” she said.

Members of the GMMP network are urgently requested to do whatever they can in their local contexts to raise awareness of the plight of Ms. Aminetou Mint El Moctar and to express their solidarity with her.

For details please see this document .