The 2014 Cameroon Human Rights Report has accused administrative officials of arbitrarily abusing the right of freedom of expression in Cameroon.

The report notes that many of the authorities at the centre of human rights abuses in the country are enjoying impunity, giving the impression that abusing human rights in Cameroon is not a crime.

This is despite the fact that the country has ratified many international human rights instruments bordering on the protection of economic, social and political rights of citizens.

Presenting the report in Yaounde, the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms, NCHRF, Dr. Divine Chemuta Banda, said administrative officials took upon themselves to crack down on every meeting whose agenda was critical of Government.

The report cited the fact that the organisers of a monthly debate in Yaounde known as “Palabre” are always in running battles with the local Divisional Officers that want to ban their meetings. It observes that all meetings organised to discuss national critical issues are banned.

The report says all public demonstrations in Cameroon except those organised by pro-establishment agents are banned.

One of the victims of such a situation is civil society activist, Bernard Njonga, who was arbitrarily arrested and detained for organising a march to protest against the embezzlement of public funds in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, to the detriment of local farmers.

Njonga was tried at the Yaounde Magistrate Court and slammed a suspended sentence. He was not compensated even after the National Anti-Corruption Commission, CONAC, vindicated him by proving that there was actually huge embezzlement in the Ministry of Agriculture.

Meanwhile, police recently arrested and detained another civil society activist, Jean Marc Bikoko, for organising a protest march against the abuse of civil, economic, social and political rights in Cameroon.

The police arbitrarily arrested Bikoko, detained him and was later tried for attempting to “disrupt public order”. A student leader, Batoum, has continued to suffer detention for daring to champion the struggle for students’ rights at the Yaounde University I.

Activists of the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, who are protesting against the marginalisation of their kind, have continued to suffer arbitrary arrests and detention in the hands of the forces of law and order. Their only crime, according to the authorities, is that they think differently.

The Human Rights Report points out that some administrative officials deliberately misinterpret the 1990 laws on freedom of expression in order to ban every public demonstration that disfavour the Yaounde regime.

Going by the report, there was an upsurge in arbitrary arrests and detentions in 2014 due to the activities of the terrorist group Boko Haram.
The police and gendarmes sometimes raided neighbourhoods, treating everyone like a Boko Haram agent.

The report equally condemns the constant abuse of economic and social rights of citizens. It frowns upon the poor working conditions of labourers at the Lom Pangar Dam construction site. In the health sector, the report holds that the corruption that reigns there amounts to the abuse of human rights. The authorities of the Human Rights Commission call on the Minister of Public Health to seek ways of arresting the issuance of fake medical certificates in the country.

Going by the report, most of the complaints the Commission received in 2014 bordered on the arbitrary arrest and detention of citizens by the forces of law and order. In this perspective, the Commission received 57 complaints in 2014 as against 27 in 2013.

The Commission, therefore, recommends the strict respect for custody deadlines, the speeding up of court proceedings and the garnering of solidarity among actors in a bid to arrest abuses caused by the increased number of refugees in Cameroon.

According to the report, there were 300,000 refugees and 46,000 internally displaced persons in Cameroon in 2014. Despite the bleak nature of the situation, the report observes that more people are becoming conscious of the respect of human rights in Cameroon.