After establishing businessman raped 10-year-old in Bamenda: Int’l organisations on gov’t’s throat over 50 million FCFA compensation.

The meeting was ogarnised with the support of Open Society Foundation, OSF. Officials of both organisations decried that close to six years since the ruling of the expert committee, government is yet to fully act. 

Representatives of concerned ministries, the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in Cameroon, ACERWC, and various Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, attended the meeting. They dialogued on the case against Cameroon.

Revisiting case

According to the Executive Director of the FGI, Gaby Ambo, the 10-year-old girl was raped in 2012 by a wealthy businessman in Bamenda, North West Region. 

Ambo recounted that despite compelling medical evidence, the case was treated with levity by the courts in Cameroon.

He narrated that the FGI in partnership with the IHRDA in November 2015 approached the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and other international organisations.

The committee, he said, met for the first time in Khartoum, Sudan, in December 2017, to argue the case during which Cameroon was found guilty. 

On September 4, 2018, the ACERWC, Ambo also said, met for the first time from April 24 to May 6, 2018, in Bamako, Mali, and Cameroon was guilty too. 

The country, Ambo added, was indicted for violating several obligations notably those on torture, protection against child abuse among others.

Panel during review of government’s response since ruling

Committee’s recommendations to not respected

Among the ruling of the international committee, Ambo said was that of Cameroon to compensate the family of the victim with 50 million FCFA; the training of security officers on human rights, the arrest and jailing of perpetrator.

Close to six years on, the organisations said, government has only ensured the arrest, prosecution and jailing of the author of the rape but has not respected the other recommendations.

According to the Research Officer of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, CHRDA, Dr Wabi W. Wakai, the accused was slammed a 12-year jail term. 

Dr Wabi commended the government but said they will continue to press for other recommendations to the respected. 

But on the compensation which he said is non-negotiable, the CHRDA Research Officer, said “we think that it is time for the government to pay this money to the family of the survivor to see that the welfare of the child is guaranteed”.

On the aspect of training security officers, he said the government has made strides but maintained that what has been done “is not directly related to this case in point”.

Dr Wabi said the government was also tasked to institute a law to protect children against sexual violence, rape as well as other atrocities. This, he regretted, is yet to be done.

Insistence push for legitimacy 

According to IHRDA Advocacy Officer, Lydia Winyi Kembabazi, the new push for respect of such international rulings is to ensure compliance across the African continent.

Winyi said they are bent on ensuring “that decisions are implemented to make existing standards and human right norms work”.

Besides the case of the 10-year-old Cameroonian, Winyi said they also used the Yaounde meeting to map new strategies and put in place focal point persons to ease work across Africa.