Cameroon

Cameroon - Speaking Up Against Rape Is Just One Part of the Solution

By Comfort Mussa, Award Winning Cameroon Journalist, Via Dignity TV

Although advocates for womens rights in Cameroon encourage rape victims to speak out, socio economic realities on the ground still makes it difficult for victims to seek for justice.

Breast ironing tradition targeted in Cameroon.

Every morning before school, nine-year-old Terisia Techu would undergo a painful procedure. Her mother would take a burning hot pestle straight out of a fire and use it to press her breasts.

Cameroun: Deux Femmes Accusees d’Homosexualite Plaident non Coupable

Deux femmes poursuivies pour homosexualité au Cameroun ont plaidé non coupable jeudi avant que leurs avocats ne demandent l’annulation de la procédure, a constaté un journaliste de l’AFP au Palais de justice à Ambam (sud).

Le président du tribunal de première instance d’Ambam (250 km de Yaoundé), ville frontalière du Gabon, a renvoyé le procès pour statuer sur la demande d’annulation de la procédure des avocats d’Esther, 29 ans, mère d’un enfant, et de Martine, 26 ans et mère de deux enfants.

Afrique: Déclaration du Caucus des Femmes Africaines à la 54ème Session de la Commission sur le Statut de la Femme

Nous représentantes de diverses organisations de la Société Civile Africaine réunies au Forum Mondial pour la Revue de Beijing 15 ans après et représentant les voix des millions de femmes et jeunes filles Africaines, Apres avoir eu des consultations avec différents acteurs avant et pendant le Forum Mondial des ONG sur les progrès enregistrés dans la mise en œuvre de le Déclaration et la Plate Forme d’Action de Beijing en Afrique,

Africa: 30 days of advocacy against Witch-hunts

29 March to 27 April 2010 (Global): The witchcraft epidemic in Africa is fueled by religious extremism. Practitioners of traditional African religions, traditional healers, witch-doctors and Christian missionaries and religious leaders incite witch-hunts on this continent. There are comparisons to be made between Africas current witch-craze, European Inquisitions and American witch-hunts. Perhaps the lessons to be learned in Africa are the same as those that needed to be learned by Europeans and Americans; there is no culture without human rights. All men and women, including Witches, have the right to live without being falsely accused, assaulted, persecuted or murdered.

Africa: Crackdowns on gays make the 'closet' safer

More than two-thirds of African countries have laws criminalizing homosexual acts, and despite accounting for a significant percentage of new infections in many countries, men who have sex with men tend to be left out of the HIV response. "[They] are going underground; they are hiding themselves and continuing to fuel the epidemic," UNAIDS executive director Michél Sidibé told IRIN/PlusNews recently. "We need to make sure these vulnerable groups have the same rights everyone enjoys: access to information, care and prevention for them and their families." IRIN/PlusNews has compiled a short list of human rights violations against gay Africans:

Cameroun: La question homosexuelle en Afrique

Rencontre avec le sociologue Charles Gueboguo au sujet de son livre traitant d'un sujet délicat sur le continent africain : l'homosexualité.

Cameroon: "Breast-ironing" of young girls, a harmful custom

"Before this breast band, my mother used the grinding stone—heated in the fire—to massage my chest. Every night my mother examines my chest (and) massages me, sometimes with the pestle." - Josaine Matia, 11 years old (Yaounde, Cameroon).

Caméroun:"Le féminisme, un autre mensonge d'Etat"

Un article d'opinion rédigé par 'Aimé'

Cameroon: Mass polygamous wedding

A mass wedding takes place in Cameroon for mostly polygamous couples to encourage concubines to wed.