Title I. General Provisions and Fundamental Principles
Article 1
Mauritania is an Islamic, indivisible, democratic, and social Republic.
The Republic assures to all citizens without distinction of origin, of race, of sex, or of social condition, equality before the law.
All particularist propaganda of racial or ethnic character is punished by the law.
Article 2
The people are the source of all power.
The national sovereignty belongs to the people who exercise it through their elected representatives and by way [voie] of referendum.
No fraction of the people or any individual may arrogate its exercise.
Political power is acquired, is exercised and is transmitted, within the framework of peaceful alternation, in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution. The coups d’état and other forms of unconstitutional changes of power are considered as imprescriptible crimes whose authors or accomplices, physical or juridical persons [personnes physiques ou morales], are punished by the law. Nevertheless, these acts, when they were committed before the date of entry into force of this constitutional law will not give rise to prosecution.
No partial or total abandonment of sovereignty may be decided without the consent of the people.
Article 3
The suffrage can be direct or indirect, in the conditions specified by the law. It is always universal, equal, and secret.
All the citizens of the Republic, of majority of both sexes, enjoying their civil and political rights, are electors.
The law favors the equal access of women and of men to the electoral mandate and elective functions.
Article 4
The law is the supreme expression of the will of the people. All are required to submit to it.
Article 5
Islam is the religion of the people and of the State.
Article 6
The national languages are: Arabic, Poular, Soninke, and Wolof. The official language is Arabic.
Article 7
The capital of the State is Nouakchott.
Article 8
The national emblem is a flag with a crescent and a gold star on a green field.
The seal of the State and the national anthem are established by the law.
Article 9
The Motto of the Republic is: Honneur – Fraternité – Justice [Honor – Fraternity – Justice].
Article 10
The State guarantees to all citizens the public and individual freedoms, notably:
- the freedom to circulate and to establish themselves in all parts of the territory of the Republic;
the freedom to enter and to exit the national territory; the freedom of opinion and of thought; the freedom of expression; the freedom of assembly; the freedom of association and the freedom to adhere to any political or syndical organization of their choice; the freedom of commerce and of industry; the freedom of intellectual, artistic, and scientific creation;
Liberty cannot be limited except by the law.
Article 11
The political parties and groups concur in the formation and to the expression of the political will. They are formed and they exercise their activities freely under the condition of respecting the democratic principles and of not infringing, by their object or by their action[,] the national sovereignty, the territorial integrity, and the unity of the Nation and of the Republic.
The law establishes the conditions of creation, of functioning, and of dissolution of the political parties.
Article 12
All citizens may accede to public functions and employments, without other conditions than those established by the law.
Article 13
No one shall be reduced to slavery or to any form of servitude [asservissement] of the human being, or submitted to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments. These practices constitute crimes against humanity and are punished as such by the law.
All persons are presumed innocent until the establishment of their culpability by a regularly constituted jurisdiction.
No one can be prosecuted, arrested, detained or punished except in the cases determined by the law and according to the forms that it prescribes.
The honor and the private life of the citizen, the inviolability of the human person, of his domicile and of his correspondence are guaranteed by the State.
Article 14
The right to strike is recognized. It is exercised within the framework of the laws that regulate it.
The strike may be forbidden by the law for all public services or activities of vital interest to the Nation.
It is forbidden in the domains of Defense and of National Security.
Article 15
The right of property is guaranteed.
The right of inheritance is guaranteed.
The Waghf assets and foundations are recognized: their allocation [destination] is protected by the law.
The law can limit the extent of the exercise of private property if the exigencies of economic and social development necessitate it.
Expropriation can only proceed when public utility commands it and after a just and prior indemnity.
The law establishes the juridical regime for expropriation.
Article 16
The State and the society protect the family.
Article 17
No one is supposed to ignore the law.
Article 18
Every citizen has the duty of protecting and of safeguarding the independence of the country, its sovereignty and the integrity of its territory.
Treason, espionage, joining [passage] the enemy as well as all the infractions committed with prejudice to the security of the State, are repressed [réprimés] with all the rigor of the law.
Article 19
Every citizen must loyally fulfill his obligations towards the national collectivity and respect public property and private property.
The citizens enjoy the same rights and the same duties vis-à-vis the Nation. They participate equally in the construction [edification] of the Fatherland and have right, under the same conditions, to sustainable development and to an environment balanced and respectful of health.
Article 20
The citizens are equal concerning the taxes.
Each must participate in the public charges as a function of their contributive capacity.
No tax can be instituted except by virtue of a law.
Article 21
Every alien who resides legally on the national territory enjoys, for his person and his assets, the protection of the law.
Article 22
No one can be extradited except by virtue of the laws and conventions of extradition.
