For decades, a whole network of Human Rights instruments and mechanisms has been developed to ensure the primacy of Human Rights and to confront Human Rights violations where ever it occurs.
In Cameroon, instruments like the balanḉois used in the police and gendarmes are not strange to the public. Most time, we forget about domestic torture and concentrate only on states organize torture. What are the instruments that guarantee freedom from torture? What is the government doing to combat torture? The role of the media, the civil society in combating torture?. The United nation Human Rights treaties and the UDHR are vital instruments to combat torture and guarantee basic fundamental Rights and freedom. When you talk of torture, the tendency is for us to limits ourselves to the physical. These are easily noticed through Laceration, bruises, and even death of the victim. But torture goes beyond battering, seeking information by using unconventional method or cruel and brutal manner with which people are treated. Torture is psychological, traumatic, it is dangerous. Torture takes away lives it disorients, and it has delibilitatiing consequences on any Human being who has experience it in any of its form. Torture in all it’s form is criminal, it’s implication a many it is grave and very serous variation of the right of the human person. Torture is a traumatizing experience with incalculable and psychological consequences. Life can never be the same again for those tortured and their families. The dignity, intergrety, and self confidence of the concerned are damage through the humanization of the person. I know of people who have withdrawn into their shells because they were raped or given inhuman beating (public punishment especially when a thief is court by the public), or because of anything that treathens life or its live ability.
According to the convention against torture the word means “any act by which servere pains or suffering whether physical or mental is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purpose as obtain from him or a third person, information or a confession punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or suspected of having committed or intimidating or coercing him or a third person or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity”. Apart from the public manifestation of torturous act by the police, the Gendarmerie, and other public officials in Cameroon, torture could be inflicted on person in our homes, schools and where ever, a human being has authority over others and would misuse such authority to inflict pain or mental anguish. Inspired of some hopes in the Cameroonian system the intension today is to seek solution on how to combat torture. Services directly concerned are the force’s of law and order prison administrative official, the civil society and to a greater extend the media. The role of the media is primordial. The state has an obligation to protect its citizens from being molested especially by those who are suppose to keep the peace and protect individual integrity and dignity. Torture should not be condoned. No matter the economic social and political situation a country finds itself government should train and sensitized all those are orone to getting involved with groups of people or individuals on matters of torture. Recognizing it obligation Cameroon rectified the U N convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman Treatment on December-19-1986 but the convention it self enters into force on June 26 1987 . By rectifying the convention, the state of Cameroon took an engagement to assist by its stipulation which includes:
1. The recognition of the right of its people which is derived from the inherent dignity of the human person.
2. Promoting universal respect for and observance of human right and fundamental freedom.
3. Adhering to the provision that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel in human treatment or punishment (this is still far to be proven).
4. Having the desire to make more effective, the struggle against torture or other cruel inhuman treatment or punishment
Torture in all it forms has existed in Cameroon and still exists. People are being molested by the police and Gerdarmes especially if it has been arranged behind the door. People are arrested without arrest warrant and even beaten up when they try to resist. Text do exist calling for it’s prohibition as we Cameroonians are aware, text are not what is lacking. We never the less needs a strong political will to implement the stipulation of the text. The ratification of international convention should not just be window dressing. It should be a commitment taken to put in place a system that would bring satisfaction and relief to every one. It would be hypocritical for Cameroon to brandish laws and convention where as its adherence to them is tentative. Torture is inhuman; it is criminal, it is dehumanizing, it is humiliating. Torture is deadly. Associations NGO’s, churches must joint in the fight against it. The state must not be left alone in this struggle as it has already eaten deep into our society.
Individuals most get involve in other to eradicate this kanka worm. The National Commission of Human Rights and Freedom (which is only existing with little or no means to challenge the government recognizes the effort being made by the state as a party to the signatory of the convention against torture).
The Commission also recognizes that despite the measures put in place to combat this ills , certain groups of people and individuals who considers themselves as the owners of our beloved country still perpetuates this brutal attitudes.
The Commission also calls, for greater commitment on the part of the states and other groups in other to bring any violators of the rights of people to a dignifying existence to justice for them to be summarily punished. But for justice to take it course the judiciary must be free from any external influence but in Cameroon it is not the case.
A typical example is a Royal Fon (chief) killing his tribe’s man because of political diversity and all the state could do was to give the Fon the necessary protection he needed and as a result no judicial action was taken against him.
Torture can not be eradicated from our society, if we condone with those who exercise it. If we remain passive, the perpetrators will consider their acts as being approved.
ROLE OF THE MEDIA IN THE FIGHT AGAINST TORTURE
The fight against torture has been unanimously embarked upon and every country has been doing their best to utilize the numerous tools put at their disposal to enhance this battle. Cameroon has provisions and rules against all kinds of torture methods. Given that torture used to be and is still a common tool in human society, especially utilized by the Cameroonian government to punish offenders, it cannot be totally banned in reality but there is need for a permanently sustained fight against it. This battle could be embarked upon by numerous players, the mass media, must take the lead. Many wondered how the Cameroon media could facilitates the fight against such a vice .that has eaten deep into the Cameroonian society. A society plaque with corruption, embezzlement, little accountability of the leaders and little or no respect of penal code.
A media that is objective, responsible, credible and powerful enough to shape the thought of the local people and influenced their mode of life would play a major role in this battle. The media are practical tools to fight against torture and communicators in society with a message that can influence and / or encourage people that have strong opinions through the media to influence the masses.
If the media must succeed to curb torture, the efforts must come from each and everyone. Individual Human Rights Activists, Civil Society Organisations must take the challenge to design programmes that will champion the fight against torture, programmes that would sell their course and laise with the various media houses to create the intended impact. Also, media houses must verify what ever message that is aired so as to ensure that it does not only entertain, inform, educate, but that it does not create an undesired impact. Media campaigns should be organised to sensitize the population against torture. This should be through specialized programs as well as publicity spots. The more information on torture is aired, the more it sticks in the minds of listeners, viewers or readers. The media should expose act of torture and not cover it like most of the Cameroonians media does. This would go a long way to scare the perpetrators to shy away from it.
GOVERNMENT ROLE IN THE FIGHT
Torture gained grounds in Cameroon in the early days of independence when repressive laws were put in place to deal with the “Marquis” and opponent of the regime and with such repressive laws, torture was commonplace.
Since the early 1990’s, torture has become institutionalized albeit tacitly with the advent of ghost towns that later bred Urban terrorism in 2000 which led to the creation of special crack forces like the “Commandment Operationel”, which led to extra judicial killings, torture, maiming of individuals for all kinds of reasons in their detention centers. The police and Gendarmes continue to use excessive, legal force against private citizens under detention, sometimes to their deaths.
The Cameroon prisons have basically no facilities. They are over crowded, with poor hygienic condition, poor nutrition (except one has a family nearby), poor health facilities and regular torture of inmate is very common especially in the famous Douala New Bell Prison. According to Amnesty International, torture is often used as an integral part of a government security for suppressing dissident or a method of government Justice System to deal with common criminal. Torture is used as a defense mechanism by State agents in emergency situations or where there is political upheaval to cow their opponents / victims into silence or renunciation of their belief. This is especially so in Cameroon, where the Government does not have the true support of the population and so torture is used to instill fear in the minds of the majority. A typical example is what recently happened at the University of Buea. Students were beaten and even killed because of the fraud in public exams.
Governments torture to extract information from a determine person, prepare a prisoner for a short trail, to an end to or even reversing the political ideologies of prisons and also to inculcate a climates of generalised fear among its citizens.
As Paul Sortre puts it “the purpose of torture is not only the extraction of information or betrayal, the victim must disgrace himself by his screams and his submission, like a human animals. In the eyes of everybody and in his own eyes who yields under torture is not only to be made to talk but is also to be marked as subhuman”. What ever the reason for torture, one think is certain, torture breaks the body and spirit of the victim and of close family member.
There is no straight jacket as to who can be a torturer. If we go by the definition of a public official, then 3 kinds of torture can be identified.
1) Public Servants who give orders:
The politics/regime in place carries the primary responsibility for the torture inflicted by its police or armed forces on the citizens. Their acts are translated as the acts of the state, making the state vicariously liable for their activity. These authorities hide themselves and feign ignorance concerning the real activities of the agents of national security. The Government should know better these perpetrators because of the existence of crack forces with very wide powers to arrest and detain summarily without trial.
2) Executors: They include legal officers, any body governed by public law, armed forces, prisons administrators, police officers or any person charged with the task force. These agents execute the orders of their superior. However, Art 2 of the UN Convention Against torture and other Cruel Inhuman, Degrading treatment and punishment provides that it is no excuse for such junior officers to invoke an order from the superior officers as justification for torture. These agents carryout torture during the detention of an accused when the case is being investigated or when he has already been incarcerated. The police and gendarmes use the popular “Balançoise” where the victim is hung from a rod with his hand tied behind his back, and he is spun round while flogging goes on. Another dreading torture method used by the law enforce officers is the “Bastonnade”, whereby the torturers heat the victims on the soles of his feet, or extractions where nails, teeth and pubic hairs are torn out; and finally by electric shock delivered on sensitive parts of the body.
At times, some detainees are force to witness the torture of their friends and these frightful scenes usually cause the weak heart to speak out because of the fear of being subjected to the treatment.
Officers who lack basic knowledge of human right do not see any harm in such treatment and rather see them as a routine part of their job.
There are also those who collaborate with torturers like officials who are governed by Public law. Here we are talking of judges (magistrates) or medical doctors who are usually used to camouflage the real cause of a victim’s death. A typical example is that of Mr Ngwa Ghandi were in the military medical officer who had neglected treating him, participated in the autopsy and attempted to falsify the cause of his death.
3) Government’s Action to combat torture: Human Rights are inalienable rights inherent in a human person and not rights given by the state. The Cameroon government has a role to play in enforcing these rights and as such it has taken the following measures.
a) The constitution: It stands above all the laws in the country and so in the hierarchy of sources; it takes priority over any national law. The preamble of the 1996 constitution in its first paragraph emphasis that all humans without distinction as to race, sex, religion and belief possess inalienable rights. It specifically points out in paragraph 14 that everybody has a right to life, physical and moral integrity and to humane treatment in all circumstances and under no circumstances shall any body be subjected to torture. By implication, torture is forbidden and that there can be no excuse for perpetrating torture. The constitution has its preamble incorporated expressly in the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter, which emphasis the inviolability of the human person and completely forbids torture or cruel and inhuman treatment in any circumstance.
b) Cameroon has signed and ratifies a handful of international instrument, which prohibit torture. Amongst these are the international covenant on civil and political Rights which provides in Art 7 that “no one shall be subjected to torture or inhuman treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.” Cameroon, also ratify the UN Convention against torture or inhuman treatment and punishment in 1986. This convention does not only forbid torture but stresses that there is no justification for it and also call for penal sanctions to perpetrators and redress by the victims as provided for in Art 4 and 14. By ratifying these conventious, Cameroon has become directly applicable unless there is specification to the contrary. Under the convention against torture, Cameroon must investigate promptly and impartially any allegations of torture in its jurisdiction as warranted by Art 12 irrespectively of complaint.
4) The penal code and sanctions: Before the demonstration of the UN Convention against torture, there was no direct recognistation of torture as a crime neither was it defined in the penal code. With the domestication of convention of the UNO. The penal code of Cameroon now makes torture a crime. The penal code further stresses that although a public servant is obliged to receive and execute orders from his superior, torture can not be justify [S.132 (a)(7)] on the basis of such orders. This now put the responsibility for torture on the torturer who can no longer hide behind the cover of obeying superior orders.
As for penal sanctions Art.14 of the UN Convention requires “State parties ensure that any individual who alleges he has been subjected to torture obtains redress and has an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation, including the means for a full rehabilitation as possible. As a result of this article 14, Cameroon has prosecuted state agents who have perpetrated torture. For example, in 2003, the president of the Republic of Cameroon ordered an investigation into the disappearance of 9 youths in Bepanda-Douala under police custody. The investigation led to the arrest of and prosecution of colonel Ousmarrou and 7 others. A high court in Yaoundé convicted 2 of the 8, with colonel Ousmarrou and sentences them to 3 years probation.
On Feb 14th, 2003, the government prosecutes in the Yaoundé military tribune, Barthethy Agandi, and Sentenced him to 25 years imprisonment and a fine of 50 million CFA for the death in 2001 of Eloi Sanda Ada. Also, on August 26th 2003, the Yaoundé High Court Sentenced 3 special operation group officers to 5 years in prison respectively for the death of Edonard Lewart in 2000 and a fine of 5.5 million to the victim’s family.
Lastly, a senior police officer was in early 2005 stripped off his rank and transferred from Limbe, pending investigation into the death of a man in a mile 4, Limbe Shoot-Out.
5) Education and Sensitization of the masses: To effectively protect and preserve the inalienable rights inherent to a human being, there should be education and sensitization of the masses on what amount to torture especially in domestic circles. Everyone needs to be personally aware of the gravity of torture on the human person. We need also to be educated on not being afraid of reprisals.
In a bit to sensitize the masses, legal counselling centres should be opened especially in the villages on how to seek redress in case of violation of human rights.
6) Education of state agents and capacity building: The education of state agents on their primary roles as peace keepers and law enforcement officers and not violators of human rights is indispensable. Some of the violators do not know that their acts amount to torture. The lack of such basic knowledge may lead to embarrassing situations as what a state council in Yaounde experienced in 1994. In carrying out his routine duty which warranted him to visit and inspect detention centres, he was detained for 5 hours, striped and beaten. The prohibition of torture is jully included in the training of state agents who may be involve in custody, interrogation or treatment of any one subjected to any from of arrest and thank God that ENAP(Advanced School of Penitentiary Administration has included Human Rights as one of its main Courses.
7) Good Governance: The break down of the rule of law and the non-respect of separation of power leads to the perpetration of Human Rights abuses. In recognition of this, the Cameroon government has set up a good governance committee directly attached to the presidency to ensue that the rule of law and good governance is re-established again in Cameroon. But the common man on the street doubts the powers of such a committee to be independent from the administration since most of its members have a common interest, embezzlement of public funds for their personal gratification. And also in Africa, we have a common saying that “no one bites the hand that feeds him”.
Civil Society organisation plays a very important role in the area of human rights advocacy. People hardly talk about human rights without citing the American Declaration of independence where it says: all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights; that amongst there rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted amongst men deriving the just powers from the consent of the governed. Much of civil society advocacy hinges on these two notions. Just powers and consent of the Governed. Most governments function on the basis of an impressive arsenal of laws purportedly drawing their sanction from the consent of the governed, since they are, in principle, voted into law by representatives of the people.
Often, the rights of certain segments of society are trampled upon when it comes to choosing who should represent them. Gerrymandering and all sorts of election fixing are nothing but violations of people’s rights.
The next area of violation of rights is in the implementation of the adopted laws. Very often, those charged with implementing them deliberately bend the rules, denying justice or service where it is due for one personal reason or the other.
What has come to be known as corruption and for which Cameroon has been wearing the yellow jersey until recently when it was rated sixth, is not just giving and taking of money under the table? It is every act or attitude which shoves aside morality in dealing with the public; which deprives people of their due and gives undue advantage to the undeserving. The public service is reputed with such violations at various levels, including the judiciary which is officially the watch dog.
All Cameroonians remember that at one time the supreme court of the land admitted an election was heavily flawed, but went on to sanction the results, pleading that its hands were tied. We know of dangerous criminals roaming the streets after having bought their freedom from custody. All these examples only points to government’s importance in dealing with human rights abuses, because the people it relies upon to check the abusers are themselves the abusers. That is why it is believed that when it comes to human rights abuses, governments are the chief culprits. Until recently, civil society activism was mute and hesitant. People were outraged by abuses suffered by individuals but could not dare to speak up. The political parties began making political capital of some of these cases. Now some civil society organisation like Prolife Aids league, victorious youth movements, organisation of Limbe United Youths Associations, LUKMEF etc and other common Initiative Groups like Green Planet International etc are becoming very vocal and active.
Some years back, a police man short a taxi driver in Yaoundé and for two days, the taxi drivers in Yaoundé made life unbearable for the inhabitants and this paralysed the political capital. It demonstrated in a very telling manner what civil society organisations can achieve with a minimum of organisation, focus and solidarity.
With a lot of reluctance, civil society organisations are now allowed to visit prisons and to report on incarceration conditions. Society’s eyes are opening and international pressure is kicking the doors in.
Most Human Rights institutions turn to ignore domestic tortures and focus their interest mostly on the state-organised tortures. It is common to see women and children with swollen faces and broken limbs in our society today and Cameroon in particular. Women and children can hardly seek redress on their own. In Cameroon, instruments like the balançois use in the Police and Gendarmes cells are no longer strange to many Cameroonians.
Torture in Cameroon is becoming sophisticated and organised with the complicity of professional groups like doctors, Lawyers, magistrates, nurses, prison authorities etc all in the name of politics. The greatest endeavour of any government is to reduce the misery of its people and increase their happiness through political stability, good economic reforms and employment opportunities with all the social benefits that follow.
Countries that have respected these values and implement them fully by incorporating them in their domestic laws have benefited tremendously from social, political and economic advancement. Those that ignore these values or simply pay lip service to them have witnessed a decline or stagnation in all the above domains. Cameroon might not full within the category of stagnant democracies but the economic and human rights situation in the country is not yet something to write home about.
WAYS FORWARD FOR IMPROVEMENT
Torture is a pathological or morbid expression of insecurity and like any other form of violence; it appears when harmony has collapsed; since the concept is related to human action. That is why no one can comfortably say he/she is not concerned with it or how its impacts society. The basic contention, not to say creed, is that torture and democracy stand in an inverse relationship. There is room only for one of them at a time. Like water and fire, the two cannot exist concurrently. Totalitarian regimes depend for their survival on concentration camps, political prisons, and a brash and brutal soldiery. In such systems the repressive machinery is oiled to perfection so that no grain of democratic sand disrupts its functioning. Before the collapse of communism, the countries of the then Eastern Blocks were all caught in this tragedy and its workings were captured by great writers. Ever since the collapsed of the Berlin wall, we see countries literally gasping for a whir of democratic breath. And as if by magic, torture has taken to its heels. Just very recently, the American Secretary of state and the Polish President were both hands on chest to proclaim that no secret prisons had ever existed in Poland. Whether or not they were telling the truth is immaterial, but the fact that they were so eager to deny the existence of torture chambers in Poland is an indication that democracy is catching on and chasing away the ugly traces of repression.
In Cameroon, we have heard of Tchollire, Kondengui, Mantum and New Bell. It is said that Tchollire no longer exist. If that is true, then it is good news. But more especially if that is true. Then it is perhaps the best indication that our budding democracy is begining to a healing hatred for brutality and other forms of inhuman practices. Torture is a dirty practise and nothing warrants or justify it, except of course our mad haste to return to the early state of animality. Civilised people don’t torture; democratic systems don’t torture. Cameroon, like all the modern nations of today is a signatory to the United Nations Charter on Human Rights and Freedom. With satisfaction, Cameroon is consciously engaged in the fight against tortured, mainly through its Human Rights Commission.
These are all good points for the state of Cameroon. But one major corollary of this situation is the extended peace the country is enjoying, even if there is a sense in which we can question the quality of the peace. Cameroon’s Human Rights records are not bad but it can be perfectible at the triple level of politics, education, and interaction.
a) Politics: Torture and democracy are antagonistic. The higher the democratic culture and practice of a system, the lower its torture quotient.
Cameroon needs to step up and entrench its democratic practice. It needs to move away from excessive theorizing and into concrete practice. The secret of democracy is the independence of the three arms of government. The Executive, the judiciary and the legislative. Once, this independence is guaranteed, democratic practice can easily take off.
In Cameroon, unfortunately, this independence is more theoretical than real. One good thing about Cameroonians is that they know what is right; but one very irritating thing about them is that they never want to do what is right even though they know what the right thing is.
A proper democratic culture will make the system less nervous and therefore less prone to acts of repression which is the expression of insecurity. In a proper democratic system, elections will be managed by an independent electoral commission answerable to the electorate and to nobody else. That way, results will not be contested because tailored to suit certain interests. And because election results are endosed by everyone, there will be no need to unleash troops on a dissatisfied electorate like was the case in Bamenda, Cameroon after the proclamation of the Cameroon’s People Democratic Party as winner of the first presidential election in the early 90’s. The constitution will be respected and there will be no need to entrench oneself in power by force. It is such things as the abuse of constitutional rights and the rigging of elections that we see the seeds of illegitimacy which can only succeed through repressive dictatorship. And torture is the weapon of such systems.
b) Education: By education, we mean civic formation. This dimension of the fight against torture is in actual fact an out crop of the democratic culture we have earlier mention, and this expresses itself in the form of a heightened respect for human beings. Public officials, civil servants, soldiers, gendarmes, warders, tax collectors but especially the police have a crucial role to play. As executors of state policy, these officials MUST be educated in the importance of respecting human rights and freedoms. And such an education will start with the respect of the people’s right to language like in the case of Cameroon. It is a serious breach when a policeman of French expression is posted to an English speaking area and made to communicate with the locals of the area in a language they posted him to the wrong place with the wrong language tool. All officials with national duties must be trained by the state to know that they are either in a bi-cultural country and should respect the language specificities of each culture. That way hostile statements like “je ne comprend par votre anglais la” and “le Cameroun est bilingue” will no longer be uttered because officials will adopt the language of communication of the people they serve. These are policy issues and not matters for individual choice.
c) Interaction: Here is essentially the social principle of human intercourse. What are the basis upon which society regulates this intercourse? Do people and view on another as enemies or as citizens with equal rights? A country like Cameroon, with its peculiar colonial heritage, must treat these grounds of human intercourse with exceeding care. Much of the bitterness we observe in society, and which invariably results in human rights abuse stems from our inability to clarify the nature of our relations with one another. There is usually too much in the air, too much desire to oppress and repress, to exploit and victimize especially in Africa.
People must understand that the countries of Africa do not belong to one particular group of people. It belongs to all the group of people that make up a country. And it does so to the same measure.
Cameroon for example belongs to Anglophones and Francophones in equal measure and no one class should consider itself blessed with a special mission to enjoy while the others watch on the side lines of national reality.
Psychic torture born of material and constitutional deprivation is the worst kind of human rights abuse. Society must watch against it.
Child Trafficking And Labour In Cameroon
Trafficking in human beings is a new form of slavery of our time and a serious violation of human rights. Art 3(a) of the UN Trafficking protocol defines “Child Trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer and harbouring of a minor for the purpose of exploitation”. Any child who has been taken away from his/her home or family, and transported to somewhere else within or across national borders by an organised crime group, to be exploited is a victim of trafficking.
Cameroon is a source of transit and destination for children who are trafficked for forced labour to and from neighbouring countries such as Benin, Chad, the Central African Republic and Nigeria. Also, children from the Central African Republic and Chad are trafficked to Cameroon, while Cameroonian and Nigerian children are trafficked to Chad. Girls are also internally trafficked from the Francophone Grand Worth and Anglophone North West to the Francophone cities of Douala and Yaoundé
Factors that Favours Child Trafficking
Children of deceased parents are extremely vulnerable to trafficking for forced labour, prostitution or combat. Their vulnerability is exacerbated by the little or no funds for their education. This coupled with stiff unemployment in Cameroon, culminating in object poverty. Thus children accept what ever job that comes their way just to save themselves from the spectre of starvation.
Deteriorating living condition, particularly in the rural areas, large family sizes (as a result of polygamy) and the demand for unskilled and docile workers are also blamed for child trafficking. Some children in a bid to evade from the stress of overcrowding at home, broken families or domestic violence fall prey to trafficking. Also, non-existence of birth registration system is another major factor and as such, children are easily moved between countries.
Out come of trafficking
Once children are trafficked, the main forms of exploitation they may be subjected to include exploitative child labour, debt bandage, domestic work, begging, involvement in illicit activities such as drug trafficking or in armed conflicts, illegal adoptions, marriage and trafficking in organs. When children are very young, their documents are easily falsified and they are presented at the borders as offspring’s of the traffickers.
In most cases, these falsified documents are obtained through the conspiracy of some state officials. Trafficked children can work from 10-15 hours a day, carrying heavy loads, operating dangerous tools, yet lacking adequate food or drink. Others succumb to sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS as a result of prostitution and or unprotected sex from their masters.
Traumatized by these abominable working conditions, ill-treatment and disease children loose their human dignity and develop a feeling of outcast. High crime wave, drug consumption and long term mental disorders become eventual.
According to a report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), thousands of Cameroonian Children fall prey to trafficking annually. Children are exploited as labourers on plantations, cocoa farms, and workers in small shops, bars and households. It is common for a middle class family in Cameroon to have one or several children working for them in exchange for a very modest wage and minimal education.
The survey revealed that children from Chad, the central Africa Republic and Nigeria were paid as little as 3000 CFA francs per month to perform chores sometimes lasting 18hours a day. These children usually suffered from Malnourishment and sexual abuse. The report added that government lacked an approved national strategy for combating trafficking and has no system for collecting data on trafficking related crimes.
Despite the short comings of the Cameroon government to combat trafficking, it has however made relentless efforts to curtail this ill. The ministries of social affairs, labour and women’s Affairs, the General Delegation for National security and the National Gendarmerie annually allocate funds to support anti-trafficking programs. In 2003, the government sponsored a three day conference on sex tourism that was attended by hotel managers and travel agencies. The ministry of social affair conducted seminars in four provinces to discuss the sexual exploitation of children.
In 2004, the Cameroon government worked in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to remove 450 children from cocoa plantation, and educated some 100 youngsters at risk of forced labour on the plantations, as part of a project to educate and retain assistance to children cocoa workers and their parents. Other victims were also referred to government centres, sponsored by the ministry of social affairs or sheltered in orphanages until they could be reunited with families.
In April 2004, Cameroon also ratified the UN Convention against Trans-National Organised crimes and its two protocols to prevent trafficking and the smuggling of migrants. Government drafted legislation for these agreements, and has revised its family code that would raise the minimum age for marriage from 15 to 18 years. In July 2004, the legislature strengthen the role and authority of the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedom, which conducts investigations and implements training programmes for law enforcement and judiciary officials on trafficking in persons. To further concretise its war against trafficking, the government of Cameroon signed a partnership agreement with the International Labour Organisation in October 2004 to sensitise the public on trafficking and organised in partnership with ILO, a programme focusing street children vulnerable to trafficking
Recommendation to trafficking
The first remedy to trafficking is the sensitization of parents and potential victims. The latter must often do not seem to understand the language of traffickers who always promise good jobs and remuneration, but eventually exploit them. Victims, because of their desperate and helpless condition and in spite of meagre or modest wages may ignorantly believe the traffickers are their saviours.
Traffickers equally need to be sensitized since some of them are not conscious of their being involved in trafficking. They take into cognisance the fact that victims are paid, as such perceive themselves as employers and not traffickers.
It is also evident that street children are vulnerable to trafficking. Therefore the government should go an extra mile by seeking to know why children resort to street life. Is it poverty? Is it escaping from overcrowded or broken home or begging to supplement their family income? If the government poses such questions and solution sought, trafficking will be partially solved. In addition, government should render financial and moral support to orphans as most of them tend to fall prey to traffickers.
Social security and welfare polices should help parents hold their families together, protect and educate children for meaningful non-exploitative occupations. Such policies should also ensure that every child is registered at birth to posses nationality.
The convention on the rights of the child and other international instruments to which the Cameroon government is a signatory should be rigorously enforced. Art 3 of the convention maintains that the best interest of children in all circumstances should be upheld. It equally obliges state parties to provide adequate care when parents or others charged with that responsibility fail to do so.
Art 20 calls for special protection for children deprived of a family environment, while Art 19 emphasizes protection from abuse and neglect by parents or other guardian. Art 32, 34 and 3.6 focuses on the protection against economic, sexual or other forms of exploitation.
Child Labour
A common phenomenon in the society today is the child abuse syndrome. Peculiar in this repugnant atmosphere is the child labour plight. Children are so important and delicate that our beloved African continent has set aside a day in honour of her little ones-called the day of the African child –beside other world days for children. It is but normal today to see kids seven to twelve years old working rather than schooling. When one makes a patrol at the market squares and bus stops, then one can better appreciate this view. What of those infants who by the age of six, starts accompanying their parents into the forests, trekking over four miles of hilly terrains, to work on the farms? stances of this imbroglios abound. When one talks of child labour, one does not only look at it in terms of parents over working their children. One also examines the more pungent aspect of it, which entails a guardian, warden or an elderly relative exploiting the strength of the child. In a country where children are becoming more and more orphans owing to many and reckless health pandemic, that sends their parents to early deaths, many children are left to succumb to their fate by being given into the custody of aliens. They helpless, choice less ones usually cannot but dance to the tunes of their supposed benevolent custodians.
The child becomes a source of cheap labour for their guardians as they are virtually responsible for all domestic chores that normally should have been done by some paid servant. No body is saying that children should not work. In a dispensation characterised by poverty and misery, it is evident that parents need the help of their children at home, on the farm and in the market but the cry of the society is that parents and guardian should have a conscience, they should trace and attempt to observe the dividing line between child work and children labour.
Child domestic exploitation is one of the most common and traditional forms of child labour. The practice, especially in the case of girls, is quite extensive, as many cultures continue to view girls’ in the house hold as an essential part to their upbringing. The children are usually from extended families, family friends or acquaintance. They usually come from extremely poor families, single parents family and villages, some abandoned children and orphans. Because these children are often identified as relatives, it becomes seemingly difficult to depict child exploitation. Adopted children and wards are subjected to poor corporal treatments. They are over-tasked and are always victims of discrimination at home. Little or nor attention is given to their basic needs such as health, dressing, feeding, rest and education.
The International Labour Organisation’s report for the year 2000 on the worst form of child labour in Cameroon revealed that some 430 000 children between the ages of 10 and 14 (about 23% of this age group) where economically active. 60% of them were primary school drop-out. The report further showed that child slavery was still going on in part of the northern provinces, including the Lamidat of Rey Bouba, where parents were reported to be of the habit of given their children for services to the Lamido and as a form of gift. In the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) conducted with the Government of Cameroon’s Ministry of Economics and Finance. It was estimated that 58.1% children age 5 to 14 were working in Cameroon in the year 2000. Only 5% worked for wages. Of those children who performed domestic work, 11% worked more than four hours a day. According to another study conducted in 2000 by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Ministry of Labour and NGOs, children in Cameroon work in the agricultural sector, in informal activities such as street vending and car washing, as domestic servants, in prostitution, and in other illicit activities. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has found that 7% of working children in the cities of Yaoundé, Douala, and Bamenda were less than twelve years of age and 60% of these had dropped out of primary school.
During school vacation, street children reportedly work to earn money for school. However, reports from the Cameroon government shows that certain forms of child labour are reported to be culturally accepted traditions in the North and South West. Children are usually employed in Cocoa farms and engage in certain hazardous task such as the application of pesticides and the used of machetes. The ministry of social affaires also reported that children of some large rural families are tend to work as domestic servants, vendors, prostitutes and baby sitters in urban towns in exchange for monetary compensation.
The factors that boost the child labour venom in Cameroon are the high level of semi-literacy and illiteracy rates in many parts of the country. Although the constitution guarantees the rights to education, some parents must bribe school authorities for their children to be enrolled besides making provisions for uniforms, books and fees. Tuition and fees at the secondary school level remain unaffordable for many families, and school enrolment varies widely by region with less than 50% of the children attending school in the Far North Province. In 2000, 87% of children who started primary school were likely to reach class six in the North West and south west whereas only 39% of children will likely get there in the central, south and East Provinces. Fewer girls enrolled in primary schools than boys (but the situation is improving). In 2001, the UN committee on the right of the child indicated a number of problems with the educational system in Cameroon including rural/urban and regional disparities in school attendants. It reveals that there is limited access to formal and vocational education for children with disabilities, children falling behind in their primary education, a high drop out rates, lack of primary school teachers and violence and sexual abuse against children in schools.
It should also be noted that early marriage, unwanted pregnancy, domestic chores and certain socio-cultural prejudices also contribute to low rate of education. In such a deplorable educational dispensation, children who cannot go to school end up doing odd jobs around, which often result in child labour. Also, in an economic arena marked by abject poverty among the masses, many parents who cannot afford to sponsor their children in school, are forced to use them on the farms, at the markets and in other petty businesses. Other parents caught in this plight, succumbs to their fate by giving their children as domestic servants or vendors to some wealthy individuals and relatives in exchange of money, or upon promises of subsequent sponsorship of the child in one vocational school or the other.
In must cases, the children acknowledging their state of poverty and apparent helplessness go out to fend for themselves and their families by deliberately and voluntarily under-taking such tasks. Another factor is the apparent silence of the mass media toward child labour. If the mass media could put as much emphasis on this issue as they have been doing on HIV/AIDS then the trauma would not have gone this far.
Also, the advent of diseases like AIDS and Malaria, in a set up characterised by poverty, has left many children parentless. These orphans are in turn being exposed to the caprices of unscrupulous, hypocritical individual who feign philanthropy with the latent motive of enslaving the child. They are just the true disciples of the French adage “Le Malheur des un fait le bonheur des autres”. Finally, child trafficking is the obvious component of child labour that needs not to be emphasized. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) reviled in 2000 that child trafficking accounted for 84% of child labour in Yaoundé, Douala and Bamenda. Intermediaries present themselves as business men approaching parents with families or custodians of orphans and promising to assist the child with education or professional training. Child trafficking is so akin to child labour that one cannot be mentioned without the other.
Measures Taken Against Child Labour
Efforts made so far to combat child labour in Cameroon cannot be overlooked. The Cameroon government has developed revisions to its family code. This development has raised the minimum age for marriage from 15-18years. This is in a bit to forestall a situation where a child, especially the girl child would be engaged into very tedious domestic exercises in the name of a house wife. To raise awareness to combat expectative child labour, the government has participated in various child labour awareness raising activities in conjunction with the ILO’s world day against child labour and Red Card Against Child Labour Initiative and the UN’s day of the African Child.
Government has developed an education for all plan for 2000-2009 that recognise child labour as a barrier to education and that proposes strategies to ensure educational opportunities for children.
In April 2004, the Cameroon government launched Education for all week and in June that same year, government officials participated in a forum with other African Ministers of Education and technical experts to discuss how to expand girls’ education in sub Saharan African. In that same year, the government collaborated with NGO’s to launch several initiatives to issue birth certificates to children for school enrolment in the northern and central provinces. The Northern provinces is where child literacy is particularly low, but with a rather alarming rate of child labour. UNICEF recently announced in 2004 its decision to make the Adamawa province its focal point area for child and female literacy programs in Cameroon. In that same year of 2004, the government also sign a protocol of Agreement to eradicate Child labour with the International Labour Organisation.
Despite these many conventions signed by the government of Cameroon, the Ministry of Labour has enforce the child labour laws through sites inspections of registered businesses. There is also the ministry of Social Affairs responsible for coordinating and implementing governments’ anti-child labour efforts. At the level of the mass media, there has been a number of anti-child labour campaigns especially those of Red Card Against Child Labour Initiative and the UN’s Day of the African Child as could be witnesses over state audio-visual media outfit, the Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV). CRTV, in collaboration with the Central African Regional Office of the International Labour Organisation has also broadcast a documentary exposing child labour in Yaoundé and River Sanaga.
The Fon of Bali Nyonga recently expressed in a press conference in Yaoundé how he has been combating the plague of child labour in his community. He went further to explain that he is working with the “NKU’UN Fed Fed”, an NGO in Bali to sensitize parents on family planning, So as to prevent them from giving birth to many children whom they would not be able to take care of.
Limitation
Although National Legislations are available to protect the interest of working children, regulation and enforcement are usually exploited. The major set back to the struggle against child labour is the insufficiency of resources. Reports on child labour in Cameroon holds that there are only 58 general inspectors from the Ministry of Labour, responsible for investigating child labour cases in Cameroon.
Another problem is the issue of availability of data on child labour in Cameroon. Reports from the International Community reveals that in many instances, Cameroon does not either have at all, or has incomplete data on the subject of child labour and trafficking.
Child labour experts in Cameroon and the government have explained that data collection process is too expensive. They further explained that the collection, analysis and interpretation takes quite some money which is not available. With such date wanting, the gravity of the problem remains concealed. It becomes difficult to actually estimate the amount of effort and strategy needed to enforce in a bid to obtain satisfactory outcome.
Lastly, there is also the problem of culture. Besides the economic hardship hitting the country, parents, especially in enclave and conservative areas, still believe in education for the male child, while the female could serve as domestic aid or be given into marriage. In the Rey Bouba Division of the North Province, parents offer their young girls to the Lamido (Chief) of the division as gifts. Such attitude (culture) can only encourage child labour. This goes to confirm that the girl child is more exploited in such places.
Recommendations And Way Forward
Experience shows that it is possible to improve the situation of domestic child labour in Cameroon with a close involvement of the Parties Directly concerned like children, Parents and the Communities and country at large.
NGO’s concerned with human rights protection in general and particularly those fighting against child labour. Should organise seminars, educational forums and to sensitize parents and community leaders, with emphasis on rural areas on the harsh realities that children, especially the girl child who are under the custody of a guardian or wards.
In addition, strides should be made towards declining rural exodus. Informal education should be encourage for children between the ages of 10 and 14 years, counselling on how to build their self-esteem, teaching them on their rights to decent lives and duties, and advising them more specifically on the problems of domestic child labour. Government should also put in enough resources for the actors (both official and civil society) So that policies pertaining to the subject can be effectively and efficiently be implemented for the good of the society and the Cameroon children in particular. This should include the funds necessary for the collection, analysis and interpretation of data so as to better measure the situation of child labour and child trafficking in Cameroon.
The government must involve more International partners as well as honestly implement the various international conventions on child labour it has ratified.
Close attention should be paid to its sister trade “child trafficking” for a significant positive achievement in this particular plague inherently mean a solution to child labour. Government and its partners should vigorously target and sensitize area of high economic concentration and their satellites, as well as conservative, enclose communities to enclose them on the importance of sending their children to school especially the girl child. For this to be possible, NGOs and Government should heavily engage the media in the strategy developed in terms of communication for behavioural change.
The media must not only wait on the rest of the society to get involved in the struggle. They are expected to forge ahead with their social responsibility as the watch dogs of the society. The public should also be sensitised and expected to collaborate with the Government and other NGOs so as to help cut down the child labour and child trafficking phenomenon that is becoming too visible to accept in this modern age.
Guardians and wards must be sensitize and forced to see reasons that children have a right to happiness, education and all the facilities that nature provides.
The laws of Cameroon protect every living Cameroonian and those living in Cameroon. The role played by freedom of expression in democracy or public participation in political and social life cannot be over emphasised. Democracy and politics are all based on ideas, freedom of expression helps to promote or challenge these ideas. However, there are certain forms of expressions (that need to be regulated) like abuse of human rights; torture, child labour and child trafficking need to be regulated for the protection of human dignity and human rights. Public interest is the main reason for such regulation and it is the role of our law makers to ensure that the appropriate laws are voted in parliament and the public sensitize for proper understanding and implantations
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