Madar (Nouakchott) - Mauritania on Saturday, October 17, 2026, presented its first periodic report on implementing the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child to the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, saying it had allocated more than 567 million ouguiyas in the 2026 budget to the child protection and development programme, according to the Sahara Medias agency.
The director of the national body against human trafficking and migrant smuggling, Cheikh Tourad Ould Abdel Malick, said the report sets out the policies and programmes adopted to protect children and the challenges in implementing them, reaffirming the country's commitment under the Charter.
According to the report, Mauritania has set up 46 regional and local child protection mechanisms, 41 of which are operational, while 3,058 workers and specialists in childhood, social work and disability received training over the past three years.
In education, the report cites the construction and equipping of 1,200 classrooms, the rehabilitation of 2,250 others and the addition of 3,743 teachers.
The report also covers maternal and child health, wider health coverage and social protection, the fight against violence, exploitation, child labour and trafficking, juvenile justice and civil registration, as well as the protection of refugee and migrant children, particularly in the Mbera camp and host communities.
The Mauritanian delegation pointed to persistent challenges, including unequal access to basic services, the quality of education, combating child marriage and child labour, and strengthening protection mechanisms.
