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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.
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Writer Profile
Akwalla Johanness
I am a young development activist who believes that for youths to be successful, we need to come together and share ideas that are beneficial to the whole of humanity.
I strongly believe that for Africa to come out of the political hostage its finds itself, our leaders must stop to consider themselves as traditional rulers. We all know that traditional rulers rule for life, and power is passed on to their descendant. And I think that once our leaders stop to think of themselves as such and concentrate on development by investing into the education and basic health care and social services, then can we say we are on the right path to human development.
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