11. (...) (a) Urgently repeal or amend all provisions that discriminate against women, such as articles 307 and 308 of the Penal Code, articles 8, 13 and 16 of the Nationality Code (1961), articles of the Personal Status Code on guardianship, child and forced marriage, polygamy, divorce, custody and management of property;
19. (...)
(b) Adopt temporary special measures, such as regulatory instruments, policies and practices, outreach and support programmes, allocation of resources, preferential treatment, targeted recruitment, hiring and promotion, and affirmative actions, as well as establish time-bound targets, as a necessary strategy to accelerate the achievement of substantive equality of women and men in all areas covered by the Convention where women are underrepresented or disadvantaged, such as in completion of mandatory schooling, enrolment in vocational training and tertiary education programmes, decreasing illiteracy through campaigns targeting adult and rural women, access to full-time formal employment opportunities, economic and social benefits and insurances, and unhindered access to affordable sexual and reproductive information and services, with particular attention to Haratine women, refugee, stateless and migrant women, women with disabilities, rural women and older women;
25. Recalling general recommendation No. 35, the Committee recommends that the State party:
(a) Urgently submit to the parliament for adoption the draft law on combating violence against women and girls in line with the commitment made by the State party’s delegation during the constructive dialogue to do so in the first half of 2023, also echoed in the third cycle of its universal periodic review, 2 and adopt targeted measures to protect Haratine women, refugee, stateless and migrant women, women with disabilities and rural women;
31. Recalling general recommendation No. 32 (2014) on the gender-related dimensions of refugee status, asylum, nationality and statelessness of women, the Committee recommends that the State party:
(a) Raise awareness among civil registrars and the general public of women’s equal rights to transfer their nationality to their children, irrespective of their marital status, and to their foreign spouse, in accordance with article 9 of the Convention, bearing in mind that article 6 of the Nationality Code (1961) provides that all provisions relating to nationality contained in duly ratified and published international treaties and agreements are applicable, even if they run counter to Mauritanian law, as also stipulated in the national Constitution;
(b) Amend articles 8, 13, 16 and 18 of the Nationality Code (1961) to ensure that Mauritanian women have rights equal to those of Mauritanian men to transfer their nationality, including to their children born abroad and to a foreign spouse;
(c) Ensure that all women, irrespective of their marital status, have access to birth registration for their children born in Mauritania, and amend the Personal Status Code to ensure that all women and men are entitled to obtain birth certificates for their children, regardless of their marital status;
(d) Ensure affordable and unbureaucratic access to birth registration and identity documents for Haratine, refugee, asylum-seeking and migrant women and women in rural areas of the south of the State party to guarantee their access to basic services, including education, employment, health care – which includes sexual and reproductive health services – social protection and housing;
(e) Expedite the process of acceding to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, in line with the commitments that the State party made in the third cycle of the universal periodic review.