In December 2011 one magistrate was removed and four others demoted by presidential decree following their decision to acquit an accused in a common law case. This constituted real executive interference with the judiciary. FIDH, its member organisation, the Mauritania Association of Human Rights and the Conférence Internationale des Barreaux (International Francophone Bar Conference) seized the UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of magistrates and lawyers of this matter. The Mauritanian authorities have now relayed to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights the reinstatement and restoration of four of the five judges in Nouakchott in March 2012. We continue to mobilise around the situation of the fifth judge.