Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2025, published 114th ILC session (2026)

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) - Mauritania (Ratification: 2001)

Article 1 of the Convention. National policy. The Committee notes with interest the Government’s indication that it has elaborated, with ILO support, a second Action Plan on the elimination of child labour (PANETE-RIM II) for the 2022–2026 period. The Government indicates that the PANETE-RIM II: (1) has five pillars aimed at improving knowledge on the one hand and, on the other, at direct preventive action, removal and reinsertion of children that are victims or at risk of child labour; (2) provides for mobilization of the necessary resources for its implementation at national and regional level; and (3) envisages better coordination of all parties concerned with a view to combating child labour in the sectors most exposed to the phenomenon, such as agriculture, livestock farming, fishing, mining and domestic work. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken within the framework of the PANETE-RIM II to eliminate child labour and on results obtained.

Article 3(3). Admission to hazardous work as from the age of 16 years. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes with interest that the provisions of Orders Nos 239 of 17 September 1954 and RO30 of 26 May 1992, which allowed children aged between 16 to 18 years to perform hazardous work without preconditions guaranteeing their health, safety and morals, have been repealed by Order No. 0066/MFPT of 2022.

Article 7. Light work. The Committee notes the adoption of Act No. 2024-048/PR of 31 December 2024, which repeals and replaces certain provisions of the Labour Code and which introduces a new section 154 to the Code. It notes that section 154 provides the conditions and modalities whereby children aged between 14 and 16 years may perform light work, in particular that: (1) express authorization of the Labour Minister is required; (2) the work may not interfere with compulsory schooling; (3) the work must not be harmful to their health and development; and (4) the work may not exceed two hours a day, and the total number of hours devoted to school and to light work may not exceed seven hours a day. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the application in practice of section 154 of the Labour Code, including statistical data on the number and nature of violations detected and penalties imposed.