Editorial: Those administrators & law officers who violate human rights

The proposal by the National Commission for Human Rights and Freedom, NCHRF, to integrate the teaching of rights in syllabuses of higher institutions is a novel idea. It is also required education for administrators, the police and gendarmes who have been consistently accused of violating the rights of detainees and restrictions of free assembly.

Although there are, to some extent, good laws that protect the rights of citizens, a credible independent observer like the United States Department in its traditional yearly reports continues to indict administrators and the security forces.

Said the Americans in one of their reports: “Although the government took some steps to punish and prosecute officials who committed abuses in the security forces and in the public service, impunity remained a problem...There were continued reports that security forces tortured, beat, harassed and otherwise abused citizens, prisoners and detainees. Security forces also reportedly subjected women, children, and elderly persons to abuse.”

The Guardian Post understands that security forces and administrators get some training on the importance of inalienability of human rights. But why is there frequent violation even when the law prescribes sanctions?

That is why The Guardian Post is recommending that education on human rights should start from primary school to higher institutions with regular seminars on the subject for administrators, gendarmes and police who are frequently indicted for abuse and impunity.

Just in November this year, an irate mob stormed the Garoua central police station to retaliate the death of a detainee, Ibrahim Hamadou. Family members initially abandoned the corpse in the cell on grounds that while in detention, he complained of physical and mental torture. But the police said he committed suicide in the cell by hitting his head repeatedly on a pole in the cubicle! He was detained on allegation of drug abuse.

We take the suicide story with a pinch of salt. Why was he not rushed to the hospital, when the police knew he was “hitting” his head on an object? Is it possible that a detainee would kill himself in a police cell? Have the NCHRF or the local state counsel investigated the case to ascertain whether he was tortured to death by the police as his family members claim or he actually committed suicide? How long was he in detention and isn’t drug abuse a bailable offence? It may not be an isolated case on the national stage.

The NCHRF in collaboration with the ministry of justice has in the past made practical recommendations to implement international instruments against torture. Cameroon is also a signatory to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, which urges member countries to implement the “Robben Island Guidelines on Fighting against Torture in the African Continent.”

The ministry of justice indicates in its human rights report that it implements those guidelines, including those of the “National Preventive Mechanism for the Fight against Torture.”

Despite adherence to good practices by the NCHRF and the ministry of justice, the protection of human rights in Cameroon continues to sink into unimaginable depths of debasement.

Administrators frequently disrupt meetings of political parties and civil society organisations with flimsy excuses. Recently, some civil society groups in Douala were preparing to show a documentary to prevent child trafficking which is a criminal violation of the rights of children.

Surprisingly, the senior divisional officer for Wouri brought in gendarmes and the police to disrupt the peaceful meeting. Administrators traditionally are reluctant to grant permits for rallies or assemblies organised by persons or groups critical of the government even when the requirement of such authorisations is debatable.

The law provides that organisers of public meetings, demonstrations and processions should “notify” the divisional officer in the jurisdiction before the event. It does not say an approval should be got, but the ministry of territorial and decentralisation officials interpret it to mean the law implicitly authorises the divisional officers to grant or deny permission for public assembly.

Groups that insist on the letter of the law and simply notify the administrators are prevented from holding their event no matter how harmless to national security. That has often been considered by independent observers as violation of rights. There are also numerous instances where common crime suspects are detained longer than the two days renewable once before being charged.

Administrators with command authority can order the detention of a suspect for up to 15 days renewable once but this power is often abused especially in the detention of SCNC members just involved in peaceful demonstrations or assembly.

As for pre-trial detention which is one of the causes of prisons congestions in Cameroon, a maximum of 18 months of detention before trial is allowed, but there have been countless cases were people wait for more than five years. NCHRF sources estimate there are more than 70 percent of inmates in life-threatening prisons awaiting trial.

The depressing catalogue of human rights violations are legion even to the point that some officials of NCHRF have had their rights abused in the course of their investigations.

The reasons for the violations are many but the main one is the ignorance of citizens to know their rights and those of others. We also doubt if administrators and security forces are thoroughly tutored on the respect of human rights to understand that even suspects and prisoners have rights: rights to be fed and treated while in detention or jail, rights to receive legal counsel and visitors, rights not to be tortured to obtain statements under duress, and rights to refuse to give statements unless in the presence of their lawyers.

At The Guardian Post we welcome the proposal to introduce the teaching of human rights in higher institutions. For it is when people know their rights can they defend them and seek redress when they are violated. In the same token it is also essential that administrators and security forces are regularly reminded of the rights of others through educative seminars.

They also need to understand, through education, the excruciating penalty for their insatiable appetite for impunity which smears the image of the country and has even landed some of the perpetrators in prison.