Universal Periodic Review: CSOs empowered on strategic role in human rights promotion.

The workshop which took place in Yaounde, ended on September 15. It was jointly organized by not-for-profit organizations, Horizons Femmes and Search for Common Ground. 

The workshop is part of the project dubbed ‘Contributing to strengthening dialogue between civil society and government for the advancement of human rights in Cameroon’.

According the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of Horizons Femmes, Armand Tick Ndewe, both organisations are supporting CSOs to strengthen their capacity for advocacy, monitoring and implementation of the recommendations from the 2023 Universal Periodic Review, UPR.

“The aim of the workshop was to identify the capacity-building needs of civil society organisations so that they can better contribute, alongside the State, to dialogues promoting the advancement of human rights in our country,” Ndewe said. 

He further explained that in order to participate in such dialogue, CSOs need to be transformed into genuine institutions. 

“We needed to identify all the aspects that require remuneration from an organisational, structural and even advocacy perspective... We are leaving here with information that allows us to know specifically what each organisation needs to be strengthened,” he pointed.

Going by the Horizons Femmes official, the assessment carried out during the two days has enabled them to improve the situation of these organisations as institutions and be ready to engage in dialogue with the government in favour of implementing the recommendations from the UPR.

Participants hail initiative

The Project officer of Littoral region-based organization, Dynamique Femme, Doumba Hyacinthe, they are working to capitalise on the various recommendations for Cameroon made during the Geneva 2023 Universal Periodic Review and identifying the challenges that hinder the implementation and seek solutions to implementing the recommendations.

He stated: “We are currently working on contributing to the operational aspect of implementing these recommendations and we are on the right track. The capacity-building session we participated in will enable us to be even more effective and to identify the challenges that prevent us from effecting these recommendations”. 

While citing challenges faced such as technical and financial terms, he averred that “access to resources is becoming increasingly limited but we are capitalising on the resources currently available so that we can at least contribute our own quota to protecting human rights”.

On his part, the President of Far North region-based organization, On Est Ensemble, Penda Eric Stéphane, said Cameroon, as a member of UPR august assembly, received 291 recommendations and of which 221 were accepted by Cameroon and 71 were rejected. 

He then expressed optimism to seeing a number of mechanisms set up to support the State in respecting a number of rights. Taking example from the field of women's protection which is their area of focus, the civil society leader bemoaned the slowness in treatment of complaints related to violence against women.

“You will see a girl has been raped and it sometimes takes a year or two for the court to pass a verdict. In the meantime, she may suffer from community stigmatisation and perhaps mental ailment. So, we will advocate for specific action to be taken with regard to women who have filed complaints with the judicial chain in question concerning GBV to accelerated the respect of rights of women and girls,” he pointed.  

The Head of the Centre Regional Branch for the Cameroon Human Rights Commission, Guy Armand Essery A Zom, the civil society have a pertinent role in monitoring the implementation of the UPR recommendations that fall within their area of action.  

He also mentioned that during a recent meeting organized in Cameroon, certain priority issues on which Cameroon must work were highlighted such as the respect of civil liberties, especially in the three regions affected by insecurity - the North West, South West and Far North regions. It was mentioned that rate of arbitrary detention and abusive arrests were concerning.  

It is worthy of note that during the Yaounde work the UPR report, the review process and its implications for Cameroon were presented.

While assessing the needs of CSOs in terms of advocacy, monitoring and evaluation, internal governance, organisational management and gender/youth integration, the participants equally identified the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of CSOs and platforms in promoting and protecting human rights.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3569 of Friday September 19, 2025