23. Section IX (1) (d) of the Revised Communication Guidelines provides that the author of a communication should exhaust all available and accessible local remedies before it brings the matter to the Committee. The issue of exhaustion of local remedies requires further explanation. As the ACERWC elucidated in its previous decisions, the requirement to exhaust domestic remedies is only applicable with regards to remedies, which are ‘available' means reachable; ‘available, effective and sufficient’? As the Commission clarified in many of its decisions, a remedy is considered to be available if the petitioner can pursue it without impediment or if he/she can make use of it in the circumstances of his/her case. According to the Commission, “the word on call, on hand, command, at producing the ‘readily obtainable; accessible’; or ‘attainable, ready, present; convenient, one's disposal, at one's beck at one's service, and call’. In other at one's words, remedies, the availability of which is not evident, cannot. be invoked by the State to the detriment of the Complainant.> The Commission defined the word ‘effective’ as “adequate to accomplish a purpose; intended or expected) result,” or ‘functioning, useful, serviceable, operative, in order; practical, current, actual, real, valid’”.* As the Commission underscored, a remedy is effective if it offers a prospect of success. If its success is not sufficiently certain, the remedy cannot meet the requirements of availability and effectiveness.° A remedy considered to be sufficient if it is capable of redressing the complaint. is 24.In the matter at hand, the Complainants indicated that the Respondent State has enacted penal laws that criminalise holding persons as slaves. On its face value, Mauritania's legal and institutional framework appears to offer protection against slavery. The adoption, on 3 September 2007, of the Slavery Act criminalizing slavery and punishing slavery-like practices appeared as a significant step in combating against. However, various reports show that there is lack of effective implementation of this law. For instance, in 2014, the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery noted that “the enforcement of the 2007 anti-slavery law relies solely upon the police and judiciary, who have shown a reluctance to follow up on allegations of slavery-like practices, with most cases being closed without any proper investigation."® Similarly, in its 2014/15 Report, Amnesty International reported that implementation of the anti-slavery law in practice remained delays.” the end poor, stating that "court cases were Amnesty International further indicated of 2014, at least six cases of slavery subject to long that between were 2010 submitted and to the ? See Institute for Human Right and Development in Africa (IHRDA and other on behalf of Children of Nubian descent v. Kenya, Communication No. Com/002/2009, para 28. * See Anuak Justice Council V Ethiopia Communication no. 299/2005, para 51. “See Anuak Justice Council v. Ethiopia (n 3 above) para 52. 5 See Anuak Justice Council v. Ethiopia (n 4 above). ® United Nations General Assembly, Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, Gulnara Shahinian: Follow-up mission to Mauritania, a7th Session, A/HRC/27/53/Add.I, 26 August 2014, para 11. ” Amnesty International Report 2014/15: The State of the World's Human Rights. London: Amnesty International, 2015 p. 245. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/poll0/0001/2015/en/ 7