Cameroon: challenges to be met to improve the protection of children’s rights – Journal du Cameroun

Posted on 06.16.2022 at 10:35 a.m. by Arnaud Nicolas Mawel

While several initiatives are implemented to ensure respect for children’s rights in Cameroon, many challenges challenge the collective conscience.

32 years after the first celebration of the day of the african child, the rights of Cameroonian children are still violated. Some children are still victims of harmful practices that jeopardize their health, their social integration or even their lives. Ritual crimes, discrimination, stigmatization and abuse of albino children, traditional circumcisions, cosmetic mutilations and scarifications, are still tortures to which children are subjected in the name of tradition or culture.

Added to this are other practices affecting children in our environment, particularly at school. This environment, which should be suitable for the supervision of children, has become a fertile ground where deviations of various kinds thrive. Cheating, stealing, rape, physical abuse, drug use and narcotics of all kinds, the insubordination of learners vis-à-vis the teaching staff, are some examples.

More vulnerable are children of a certain category. They are those with a deformation bodily significant, a physical handicap (autistic or trisomic); unusual behavior (aggressive, stubborn, thoughtful, lonely, lazy), children born prematurely or from multiple births, rapid births, etc. They are exposed to accusations of witchcraft.

However, Cameroon has ratified almost all of the international legal instruments relating to the protection of children’s rights. This is the case of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified in 1993, of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child in 1996. They should be applied rigorously at the national level.

In addition, the public authorities and their partners have put in place mechanisms for the protection and care of children. This is the case of the social action services set up by the Ministry of Social Affairs. These structures protect children against wanderings, running away, insofar as these children when they are in the street, are exposed to violence, rape, etc. In recent years, several children have been abducted from the streets.

These services, which are set up near high schools, the media, courts, collect children, secure them, fight against drug use, school violence, or against harmful practices affecting children within the justice system.

The celebration of the 32nd edition of the African Child’s Day on June 16, 2022 offers the opportunity to reflect on a theme. ” Elimination of harmful practices affecting children: progress on practical policies since 2013 “. In this way, other means can be found to improve the situation of Cameroonian children.