As part of activities marking this year’s Day of the African Woman, the National Commission for Human Rights and Freedoms, NCHRF, has called on government to review all national laws concerning women that are contrary to international instruments to which the country is party.

In a statement signed by NCHRF Chair, Dr Chemuta Divine Banda, the Commission said statutes hampering the development of the Cameroonian woman include those on management of joint marital property, the management of the wife’s property by the husband and the Civil Code that makes the man the sole manager of the family estate.

The Commission called on government to hasten up the forwarding to Parliament of the bill on punishing violence and discrimination based on sex. It equally raised concern about the trafficking in Cameroonian girls and women to serve as modern slaves in Middle Eastern countries.

While noting that significant progress has been made in increasing women’s representation in national institutions like the Parliament, the NCHRF condemned the recent spate of suicide bombings in the Far North Region by Islamic State of West Africa (defunct Boko Haram) militants, adding that the involvement of innocent children in such acts was ignoble.

The National Commission for Human Rights and Freedoms also urged government to continue to strive for the improvement of the livelihoods of women to make them less dependent on men. It said this would enable women get out of ignorance and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, discrimination and sex-based violence.