Magistrates advocate for rights of prisoners

Magistrates serving in the Northwest, Southwest and West regions have described conditions of detainees in Cameroon prisons as precarious and are calling on government to rehabilitate detention cells, build new ones and compensate victims of human rights abuses.

The Magistrates who held a three-day seminar in Bamenda on April 10 on the theme “Human Rights in the Judiciary” focused particularly on the International System for the protection of human rights, redress of human rights violations, human rights in Cameroon, declaration of liberty with emphasis on the fight against torture in the detention, the right to fair trial and restitution to victims among others.

Justice Ngassa Vera, Vice President of the South West Appeal Court and resource person at the seminar said the inhumane treatment of detainees in the country is increasingly disturbing and that government cannot pretend to give it a blind eye.

“Just by putting somebody in prison for one day, you can kill him. The putting of someone in detention is torture because they are dirty and disease infested.

Many people are tortured, yet they do not know that they are tortured, so we need people to know their rights and this has to go with the putting in place of a proper compensation mechanism because if someone is tortured, then he has to have compensation and redress.” Ngassa said.

Mbagwe Rosline, President of Mezam High Court lamented on the absence of toilet and water facilities in prisons in the country and the phenomenon of overcrowding in cells. She said most cells in the country are a breeding ground for diseases.

“When you imagine that prisoners have to live in airtight cells and pass out waste in buckets because of the absence of toilets, they are exposed to countless diseases” she said.

Overcrowded detention cells and deviant attitudes in prisons like consumption of hard drugs, homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual victimization the magistrates said, are likely to give rise to diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and mental health problems which is a clear indication that the rights of the inmates are being violated.

The fact that some prison administrators and guards treat inmates with impunity as if they are not human beings is beginning to draw a lot of attention from so many circles and government will need to redress these conditions if the rights of the detainees must be respected.

Marcel Oyono Abah, Attorney General to the North West Appeal Court who represented the Minister of Justice at the seminar acknowledged the concerns of magistrates and promised that their recommendations will be forwarded to hierarchy for appraisal.