The Ministry of Justice of Mauritania and the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Nouakchott, Mauritania, launching a new phase of judicial cooperation under the project ‘Strengthening the Reach and Accessibility of Constitutional Justice in Mauritania’, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office. The MoU serves as a general framework for collaboration, setting the stage for the two parties to embark on a number of activities aimed at strengthening the judicial sector capacity, with a focus on constitutional justice. This partnership builds upon cooperation initiatives that began in 2024/2025 with several stakeholders in the country and is now strengthened by the formal addition of the Ministry of Justice and the country’s judiciary as key partners to the project.
The signing ceremony was attended by a high-level delegation from the Ministry of Justice, namely the Secretary General of the Ministry, Mr Mohamed Ahmed Aida, Mr Edou Ould Bibana, Inspector General of the Judicial Administration and Prisons, Mr Amr Ould El Gacem, Adviser on Cooperation, Evaluation and Monitoring, Mr Ahmed Vall Lezgham, Director of Human Resources, Mr El Houssein Kabbadi, Director of Judicial Cooperation, and Mr Mohamed Salem Ould El Khalifa, Head of Communications.
In his opening remarks, Mr Mohamed Ahmed Aida, the Ministry’s Secretary General, warmly welcomed the partnership and emphasised the Ministry’s eagerness to cooperate with the Max Planck Foundation. He underlined the importance of exchanging legal knowledge on various topics and benefiting from the Foundation’s legal expertise. The formalisation of the collaboration was also attended by Mr Lars Doebert, Political Officer at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Mauritania, who shared his remarks on behalf of H.E. Dr Florian Reindel, German Ambassador to Mauritania. Mr Doebert emphasised Germany’s commitment to supporting the rule of law sector in Mauritania and to fostering a close cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and the Mauritanian judiciary.
The event officially concluded with a working lunch, during which both parties discussed the immediate next steps and the implementation strategy for the upcoming activities.