Mauritania

Mauritania became independent of France on 28 November 1960.  Mauritania first freely elected a President in 2007, who was deposed and replaced by a military council government in 2008 under General Mohamed Aziz, who was subsequently elected President in July 2009.

The country continues to experience ethnic tensions between Afro-Mauritanians and white and black Moor (Arab-Berber) communities, and confronts a terrorism threat by al-Qa'ida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Mauritania has a mixed legal system based on Islamic and French civil law.

Mauritania has a constitution dating from 1991 which provides that no one may he prosecuted, arrested, detained, or punished except in cases determined by the law and according to the formalities which it prescribes; and that all forms of moral or physical violence are.

A comprehensive listing of the laws of Mauritania in English is not available online.