The Penal Code should be a consensual tool-Bar council president

Amongst other things, they have expressed a desire to re-read the modified the penal code so as to harmonize the English and French versions, in the best interest of the citizens of Cameroon.

One of the bills tabled before members of the lower house of parliament in the ongoing (June) session of the National Assembly is that on the modification of the Cameroon penal code. But while the legislators are examining the draft bill, the lawyers of Cameroon have called for its immediate withdrawal from Parliament. The lawyers say amongst other things that they ought to have been consulted before any such decision to modify the penal code was to be taken.

After an extraordinary session of the Bar council in Yaounde on Thursday, 16 June 2016, the lawyers issued a press release in which they deplored with gravity the lack of concordance between the English and French versions of the penal code. This, they pointed out, can only produce divergent interpretations and applications of the same law and thus bring about an aggravation of judicial insecurity.

Also expressing a firm wish to contribute in the writing of a quality penal code, the members of the Bar council said in the release that they have set up a committee of experts that would propose an improvement of the said text to parliament as soon as possible.

The purpose of this, they added, is to drop outdated sections and articles, verify the conformity of the provisions of this bill with international instruments ratified by Cameroon, and ensure the inclusion in the code of criminal sections and articles contained in some particular laws.

They thus called for the withdrawal of the bill so that they could do a re-reading of the text and harmonise the English and French versions, in the best interest of the citizens of Cameroon.

In this short interview with the press, the president of the Cameroon Bar council explains some of the things that are wrong with the new penal code and calls on the government to sit up.

*In what way does the bill on the modification of the penal code tabled at the National Assembly constitute a misstep in the state of law?

The bill has a philosophy that was expressed in the preamble. In this preamble, the government advanced a number of justifications. I will mention that which has to do with the reduction of overcrowding of inmates. In other words, the government has chosen to reduce congestion in prisons. Paradoxically, the government is instituting through the penal code new crimes which are all punishable by prison terms above two years.

These new crimes which are non-payment of rents, refusal to execute a court decision will necessarily lead to the increase in the number of inmates. In a state of law, legislation is not done to increase the population of inmates; it is done to reduce it. From this point of view therefore, one can say that there is a misstep in the state of law.

Cameroon is currently facing a major security challenge which is terrorism. The Bar council has once raised its voice on the law suppressing terrorist activities.

The Bar council is very surprised that the provisions of the latter text were not transposed in the penal code whereas one of the objectives expressed by the government in the preamble of the text is about bringing together scattered provisions found in different laws into the unique corpus of our penal code.

Concerning the provision which punishes the non-payment of rents, the international pact on civil rights and policies, ratified by Cameroon (article 11), explicitly prohibits imprisonment for reasons of debts.

Nobody can be imprisoned because of a debt which was established on a contract basis. See how a country which affirms its attachment to a state of law incriminates this behaviour which international law asks to be considered as civil…

*You are demanding the withdrawal of the text and are inviting the National Assembly to assume its responsibilities. What will the Bar do if its plea is not heard?

The penal code is a tool that has to be consensual, and I think that the government of the Republic is very aware of this. It is a text that regulates the life of each and everyone. It therefore has to be a document of great consensus, even if everyone is not consulted.

When lawyers who implement it on a daily basis say that it is good to look at it with rigour and modify some provisions, I don’t doubt a moment that the government will be attentive.

What the Bar council has done today [the day of the extraordinary meeting] is not to defend the interests of a trade union, but rather that of citizens. The Bar council considers itself as the eldest girl child of the civil society.

With this, the Bar intends to assume its responsibilities by indicating to Parliament the direction to follow so as to arrive at a penal code that is acceptable to all citizens…

*Why did you have to meet the speaker of the National Assembly [shortly before your extraordinary meeting?

The speaker of the National Assembly proved to be attentive. I think he was playing his role. The Parliament legislates in the name of the Cameroonian people. As a constituted corps, the Bar is a professional organization instituted by the law.

Who observes social issues better than the lawyer? Who then can say in reality what has to be reprehensible at one moment and what does not have to be at another?

My meeting with the speaker lasted about one hour, and I can assure you that he took good note of what we told him. I will not tell you what he told us in return.

I should rather tell you that we gave him a copy of our memorandum containing a position clearly stated on the philosophy of the text and on some provisions which seem problematic to us.

Same on a number of defaults, the Bar council pointed out provisions from international treaties and conventions ratified by Cameroon and which were not transposed in the proposed new document, whereas these are international engagements which we freely subscribed to as a state. We have a duty to respect them. I am thus requesting the speaker to be very attentive to this.