A U.N. human rights expert has urged Mauritania to step up its fight against slavery.Gulnara Shahinian says she met with former slaves who described being "utterly deprived of their basic human rights."
Slavery has been outlawed in the African country since 2007 but the practice persists because of lack of knowledge or resistance to its abolition.
Shahinian said in a statement Wednesday that a "sustained approach" is needed to root out slavery practices such as serfdom and domestic servitude.
Shahinian, the U.N. slavery investigator, is one of several unpaid experts appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.
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