Date of first review: 9 December 2008 The troika consisted of China, Cuba and Senegal.
Cameroon was reviewed during the 4th UPR session (February 2009). The delegation was lead by H.E. Joseph DION NGUTE, Minister Delegate at the Minister for Foreign Affairs in charge of the Commonwealth.
Although the report of Cameroon contains five points on education, it doesn't mention Human Rights education at all.
See pages 12 and 13 of the national report.
CED Le Centre pour l’Environnement et le Développement, Yaoundé, Cameroun
CHRI Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative*, New Delhi, India
FI Franciscans International*, Geneva, Switzerland.
FIACAT/ACAT Fédération internationale de l’Action des chrétiens pour l’abolition de la Torture*, Paris, France et Action des chrétiens pour l’abolition de la Torture au Cameroun, Bamenda, Cameroun
FIDH/MDHC Fédération Internationale des Ligues des droits de l’Homme*, Paris, France et Maison des Droits de l’Homme du Cameroun, Douala, Cameroun
FONI Fondation Idole*, Yaoundé, Cameroun RSF Reporters Without Borders*, Paris, France
UNPO Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, The Hague, the Netherlands
Franciscans International has pointed out that a children's parliament has been established in Cameroon in 1998, and that little is known about its contribution to the actual enjoyment of the rights of the child, the setting up of structures promoting the access to rights by children, or any other program for the promotion of children's rights. Thus, doubts are raised on the real impact of this structure.
Six points of the summary are about education and one of them (point 33) deals explicitly with Human Rights education.
Excerpts of the summary established by the High Commissioner for Human Rights
9. CNDHL (Commission Nationale des Droits de l’Homme et des Libertés), says the strategy implemented by the State for people with disabilities aims at insuring their education, training and socio-professional integration through the creation of a special legal and institutional frame and several diverse supports. CNDHL adds that the main challenge is in the actual implementation of all these measures, especially since Cameroon still has not ratified the 2006 Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, and since these persons lament discrimination, under-education, under-employment, non recognition of their problems in the development of policies, near absence of structures adapted to their condition, under-representation in decision taking bodies and poverty(12).
19. Franciscans International underlines that the phenomenon of street children in Cameroon is frightening (31), that the minimum age of admission to employment isworrying because the rules of Convention nr. 138 of the BIT, which Cameroon ratified in 2001, are not respected, and this very common situation has an influence on the education of the children who are victims of such practices (32). Franciscans International recommends the Government of Cameroon to take any measure necessary in order to abolish child labor (33) and prevent and fight child trafficking (34). FI also recommends the implementation of a national policy for an improved protection of the children of divorced couples by establishing, i.e., schools with psycho-social centers with the aim of detecting bad treatment of and discrimination-like practices against children in families (35).
20. CNDHL adds that the protection of the rights of the child in Cameroon is still teinted with many problems such as: infanticide, corruption of youngsters, indecent exposure in the presence of persons below 16 years of age, violence on children, kidnapping of minors, trafficking, exploitation, lack of schooling, in partticular for girls and disabled children, juvenile crime, social maladjustment, exclusion, female genital mutilations, street children, abandoned children, malnutrition and infant mortality (36).
33. With the help of other partners, CNDHL has prepared a Pedagogical manual for Human Rights education at all levels of teaching, thinking of the implementation of the recommendations by the two UN Decades for Human Rights Education (1995-2004 and 2005-2014). Nevertheless, according to CNDHL, many challenges remain in matters of education in Cameroon, in particular: too little infrastructure in rural areas; high costs for school books; existence of compulsory additional fees such as fees for adhering to the pupils' parents associations (APE) (despite elementary education being for free); high costs for preparing the personal file for the preparation to official competitions and exams; absence of teachers in certain rural areas; budget owed preference given to boys over girls; suspension of schooling of young girls because of early marriage (59).
34. Franciscans International underlines that in 2004 the Government of Cameroon has made elementary education free according to article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, yet certain practices voluntarily or involuntarily ancouraged by the Governement seem to go against this measure (60). Franciscans International adds that schools in Cameroon are ill-equipped in technical and didactic material and suffer from a lack of infrastructure, all of which causes overcrowding in school classes of up to 150 pupils per class (61). According to Franciscans International, despite legislation, pupils are not at all made to be closer to schools (62), and disabled children are ever more marginalized even though they should benefit from special help and an effective access to education (63). The school enlistening rate of girls compared to boys is still low, and the country still suffers from the preference given to educating the boys rather than the girls, especially in rural areas (64).
35. Franciscans International recommends the Government: to implement the recommendations of the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child concerning health, forceful marriage, child labor, children trafficking and children conflicting with the law (65); to actually implement free elementary education by eliminating unexpected expenses which influence the children's education (66); to adapt the competences and the role of the pupils' parents associations so that elementary school may actually be free (67); to accompany the buildinng of schools with the recruitment of a sufficient and well trained teaching body, and to insure the availability of needed material (68).
(12) CNDHL, p.5.
(31) FI (Franciscans International), p.5, para.4.1.
(32) FI, p.5, para.4.2.
(33) FI, p.5, para.4.4.
(34) FI, p.5, para.5.2.
(35) FI, p.6, para.9.2.
(36) CNDHL, p.5.
(59) CNDHL, p.4.
(60) FI, p.3, para.1.1.
(61) FI, p.3, para.1.2.
(62) FI, p.3,para.1.3.
(63) FI, p.3, para.1.4.
(64) FI, p.3, para.1.5.
(65) FI, p.3, para.1.8.
(66) FI, p.3, para.1.9.
(67) FI, p.3, para.1.10.
(68) FI, p.3, para.1.11.
On the total of recommendations adressed to Cameroon, 41 have been accepted, 16 rejected and 4 have been subjected to reservations.
All Human Rights Council (HRC) recommendations concerning education have been accepted. Only one of these deals with Human Rights Education.
36. Continue its efforts to ensure equal access to education throughout its territory for all, without distinction as to sex or social origins (France); continue its work to improve the scope of education and its quality at every level (Belarus); continue its efforts to universalize free primary education (Brazil); step up its efforts to provide free primary education to ensure the right to education of all children (Indonesia); strengthen the national strategy to guarantee better access to education for all children and to include in the school system, at any level, appropriate measures in the area of human rights education in accordance with the 2005-2009 Plan of Action of the World Programme for Human Rights Education (Italy)
76 (24) Cameroon accepts these recommendations and committs to continuing cooperation with the Special Procedures. Cameroon nevertheless underlines that the rights of all human rights defenders are respected and calls upon them to comply with article 3 of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and respect the laws and regulations of the Republic. Human Rights training and education sessions are regularly organized for police and justice personnel. Human Rights courses are on the program of the schools wich train this personnel.
Until today, no follow-up to the implementation has been notified.