To boost collaboration: Cameroon Human Rights Commission, Bar Council rights body negotiate partnership.

The resultant partnership is intended to facilitate collaboration in the promotion of human rights and the prevention of torture in Cameroon.

Discussions and negotiations for the envisaged partnership started in Yaounde on Wednesday April 24.

The President of the Cameroon Human Rights Commission, Prof James Mouangue Kobila, and his close collaborators received in audience a delegation from the rights commission of the Cameroon Bar Council led by its Vice President, Barrister Dorcas Nkongme.

Speaking in a brief statement, Prof Mouangue Kobila expressed gratitude to the Bar Council commission for its initiative to approach the national body for collaboration.

He said the national rights body is pleased and looking forward to having a highly fruitful partnership and working relationship with the Bar Council in the promotion of human rights.

According to the Vice President of the Human Rights Commission of the Bar Council, the partnership under discussion will upon its signing, immensely be helpful to lawyers of the Bar commission and Council as a whole.

She said the Cameroon Bar Council will use its collaboration with the national human rights body to open more doors in its pursuit for the respect of human rights. The move is also intended to combating all forms of discrimination against women.

“The major focus of the collaboration is based first of all on the denunciations that we are going to engage in notably in the protection of human rights on the field and to use the Cameroon Human Rights Commission as a reference each time we are blocked,” Barrister Nkongme said.

Plausible efforts to boost human rights promotion 

The ongoing discussions for a partnership will upon signing, further boost the efforts already being made by the Cameroon Human Rights Commission.

These are in the areas of continuously improving the promotion of human rights, tackle discrimination against women and several other ills on Cameroonians.

Prof Mouange Kobila raised several issues including the crowded nature of Cameroonian prisons and abusive pretrials.

He said the body is concerned about the sluggishness in processing the files of detainees under judicial investigations in Cameroon as well as the difficult communications between the legal department and prisons.

He says all of these exacerbates the ignorance of some detainees about the status of their judicial matters.

“The Commission strongly condemns, the cases of abusive pre-trial detention observed at the Ngaoundéré Central Prison, Guider Prison, Tcholliré Prison and Ntui Prison since 25 April 2023, acts that contribute to intensify overcrowding in prisons,” Prof Mouange Kobila stated in a section of his speech at the event.

The president also urged the government to further raise awareness among the public and detainees in particular. He added there is need for government to cooperate with organisations promoting and defending human rights.