The Commission on Human Rights, the Fight Against Poverty and Social Inclusion had been operating for only nine months when Human Rights Watch met with its representatives in April 1999, and had understandably not yet established any notable experience. The only reported activity was a "Human Rights Education Day" on December 10, 1998 commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On that day, conferences in Arabic and French were held by law professors at the University of Nouakchott. According to the commission, participants numbered "between 180 to 400."159 A "National Education Day", organized the same day attracted 150 students of the School of Education. Finally, "discussions and debates on women's rights" also brought together on the same day representatives of the commission and of U.N. agencies in the country.

Human Rights Watch was told that the commission is in the process of drafting a multi-year plan of action which will include: the development of human rights education materials for schools and the media, informational activities directed at government agencies to encourage them to adopt and enforce human rights laws, and activities directed at judges to help them improve their work with respect to human rights.160

Although still in the planning stages, it is clear that the plan of action is heavily directed at human rights education with no human rights protection work. The absence of human rights protection activities seems symptomatic of the commission's compliant approach, based on our interviews. Although there is a department within the commission tasked with the protection of human rights, it has limited its work only to human rights education and review of judicial instruments. When questioned by Human Rights Watch about the role of human rights protection work in the activities of the commission, Mr. Bamariem, the director of human rights promotion in the commission, insisted that the protection of human rights was primarily the responsibility of the judicial system and not the commission.161 As for the commission, he added, it fulfills its role, which is to help judges accomplish their duty in this domain, which is provided for in the plan of action being prepared.162 According to Mr. Bamariem, the commission receives complaints from victims of human rights abuse through the local NGOs. "We listen to what the NGOs tell us and verify the complaints with the ministry in question.163

Mauritania has some of the most dynamic NGOs in Francophone Africa, and they have been denied official registration and harassed by the government. It is a shame that these NGOs can find no support from the commission nor collaborate with it to promote human rights. The principal human rights NGOs in Mauritania continue to function in parallel with the commission, which, in turn, ignores them. In response to the question of how the commission intends to establish a dialogue with human rights NGOs if they did not participate in any of the commission's activities, Koita Bamariem replied that "the commission assigns them specific tasks in the domain of human rights promotion as was the case during the fiftieth anniversary of the commemoration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."164 However, the report of the events published by the commission makes no mention of any NGO participation.