SLC22-W3 / Human rights (DDHH)

Steem greetings to everyone on this awesome Steemit platform , from my home country Cameroon 🇨🇲 .Its another great opportunity for me to participated in this week Teaching learning engagement Slc22-w3. Where we are given the opportunity to share our thoughts on this amazing topic “Human rights (DDHH)”. How it’s been functioning and respected in our various countries .

However, in my opinion I think human rights are violated more than the way they are protected in my country Cameroon. In Cameroon with the coming of a dominant political regime since 6th November 1982 there has been persistent economic crisis and accusations of electoral frauds that has led to social and political crisis. Recently, Boko Haram Terrorism and the Anglophone crisis that came up as a result of bad governance which had led to several rights violations including war crime and crimes against humanity as the government forces battle against separatists and the terrorists.

The rule of law in Cameroon could be seen from two perspectives. Cameroon as a signatory to 9 different conventions and optional protocols is a state of law and these conventions are localized in the Cameroon Constitution of 1996 which states that duly ratified treaties and conventions shall be ranked above the national laws.

To this effect the law number 2006 on judicial organization has given local courts legal jurisdictions and procedures that must be exhausted before international tribunals could be petitioned. In that sense the state of Cameroon has put in place a legal machinery as the main party responsible for human rights in the country. The constitution of 2 June 1972 revised in 1996 is the supreme norm of the land and with state sovereignty that remains academically questionable even though states exercise these powers nationally we have seen recently international interventions that have taken the states to task on the human rights situation in the country.

The Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) is a leading human rights power house in Cameroon with it partners REHDAC. In the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon where over 6000 people have died in a persistent war between the government security forces and separatist fighters who have decried marginalization and wanted to separated from the state of union that existed since 1961 plebiscite through a referendum for reunification of two federal states.

The war or liberation became an arsenal of rights violations including degrading inhuman rights violations including torture, violation of rights to life , crimes against humanity and war crimes by both parties. The Center for Human Rights has continued to partner with national and International bodies to hold the state of Cameroon responsible for the human rights situation in Cameroon over the years. The committees have been petitioned in charge of the various conventions like the Committee mandated on the convention on torture which Cameroon has received some queries even recently on several cases on torture and the situation on many cases have been investigated and tried locally by the state of Cameroon thanks to the works of the human rights Center.

The Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa suffered repression from Government as the lead advocate Barrister Felix Nkongho and founder was thrown in jail in 2017 for leading the demonstration against the government for marginalization of anglophone Cameroonians and in in 2024 her partner REHDAC was suspended by the Interior Minister with unfounded allegations.
However, the human rights situation in Cameroon situation in Cameroon through the universal periodic reviews of Cameroon could not have the same without the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa.

Many Universities and global partners including the UN security Council and United Nations have joined hands in advocating for inclusive and national dialogue in the country to bring peace back to the restive nation thanks to the works of the human rights lead organization CHRDA.

From December 3rd to December 6th 2018 when I was pregnant for my first son during the present crisis I personally went through a grievous human Rights violation. In a seventh month pregnancy for my first child in Ndop where I was a teacher living in peace I was forcefully displaced as a result of multiple cross fires from both confrontations between separatists and government forces led to insecurity in the entire Anglophone Regions and Ndop in Particular where I was deployed as a government teacher became unsafe.

As a teacher and a pregnant women multiple gun battles confronted me on my way to school Untill Ihad to stay away from
My job for months and with seven months pregnancy I was forced to flee Ndop abandoning my job and also loosing access to the facility where I was taken antinatals. Upon arrival at my matrimonial home in Kumbo the battle between separatists took me by suprise where our home was stormed in the night breaking the 3rd of December 2018 and government soldiers stormed our home in search of separatists fighters that has been patrolling the locality. I can’t imagine the collateral damages from both parties as my father who was hosting me was earlier abducted by separatist who degradingly treated him assaulted him and caused multiple injuries.

The house was totally destroyed a few days by government soldiers who came later and over 21 homes were burnt with property damaged and looted in my quarter alone. I was tortured while pregnant and were were traumatized and My husband took me immediaty to BBH (Banso Baptist hospital)in Kumbo a hospital that hosted me for 30 days before I put to birth. I needed psychological support because of the trauma but I could not have it as we already lost our home to the war, gun shorts continued till the 6th of December and the fear of safety was our major priority.

I could not rest Untill I put to birth that on the 15th of December 2018 that I put to birth. We had no home to return to , as Ndop where I was reaching was devastated by war , my school had closed because of the crisis and my home was also destroyed and over 21 houses set on fire and over 300 shops destroyed in the near home market and road blocked with sticks and big timbre trees in my quarter. We only remained in the hospital.

My aunt was also on shock without my knowledge as we thought of leaving to my aunt. Who was living in Meluf Kumbo in north west region of Cameroon , I ,my mum and my dad and my small son were still lamenting on where to escape next our only hope was our plans was to escape to our Aunti who was married in Meluf and little did we know she had been through the worst than us.

It was after the birth of my son we realized that the military storm in our locality extended to Meluf and our Aunt lost the husband the military burnt a house of a neighbor while others were on the run the husband died in the house as a result of the military storm. We had no home or safe heaven apart from escaping to Bamenda. Our aunt escape to Yaoundé where the daughter was living but because of Post traumatic Stress disorder my father died later in Bamenda in May, 2022 and my aunt also went mentally deranged and finally gave up the ghost while in displacement in Yaounde in November 19, 2024.
We have suffered helplessly as the crisis continued and we have not been able to return home.

Case study 1.

A woman loses her son when he dies at the hands of assailants who kill him to steal his car. The assailants are later arrested and prosecuted for the murder. He is serving the sentence provided for by law. However, the woman believes that her right to life has been violated and decides to file a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Please state whether you believe that the human rights of the victim in this case were indeed violated and whether the complaint to the aforementioned body should be admitted or not. Explain your answers.

Yes her rights were violated and I do not think the lady still has a case except she is appealing for the quality of trial and prosecution results she expected because the law has been rendered as per the law.
The same case has been tried and perpetuators have been sentenced. The local courts have done the needful and here is no need taking the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Case study 2.

A person is arrested in the middle of an anti-government protest. He is beaten by police officers, resulting in his death. The prosecutor assigned to the case begins the investigation without being able to precisely identify the perpetrators of this murder. Several years go by and the victim's relatives turn to the prosecutor's office for an answer, and are told that the case has been closed because several years have passed without being able to identify the officers who caused the death.

Please state whether you believe that the human rights of both the victim and his/her family are being violated. Explain your answers.

According to the convention on torture any acts of torture committed by police officers that state is held responsible and the fact that the police officials that perpetuated the acts were not identified does not nullify the responsibility of the state to pay for damages to the family since the act of killing was unlawful. Acts of peaceful demonstrations are lawful and the circumstances of the demonstration must be legally examined by the courts and that was not the case. The family still has the case in jurisprudence and case law the leaders of the police group who led the mission should be held responsible and to that effect the state is the responsible party.
The right of the victim is violated because the law was not followed.

The killing was extrajudicial and not prescribed by law. The victim had the right to fair trial and the punishment must follow the procedure prescribed the law. The family had the right to seek for access to justice and the responsibility of the state in this case is paramount and the state is liable.

I have come to end of the discussion, I would like to invite @josepha @crismenia @wilmer1988 and @pandora2010 .To participate in contest.