Madar (Nouakchott) - Mauritania's National Assembly on Monday, November 2, 2026, passed a bill on national documents at a plenary session chaired by its vice-president Ahmedou Mohamed Mahfoudh Mbale, the Mauritanian News Agency reported.
The minister in charge of the government's general secretariat, Mokhtar Abdallahi, told MPs the text sets a unified legal framework for collecting, classifying, preserving, protecting and providing access to national documents in all forms and media, in step with administrative and technological change.
The bill responds to the obsolescence of the text governing the national archives, decree 68-294 of October 15, 1968, and aims to align the legal framework with the institution's current missions and international standards.
It defines types of national documents, enshrines the public and heritage status of public archives, regulates private documents important to national memory and sets access conditions and time limits, balancing the right to information with national security and privacy. It also covers electronic and audiovisual records and includes incentive and penal measures.
MPs praised the bill as modernising document management and safeguarding national memory.
