By DOH JAMES SONKEY IN YAOUNDE
The Chairperson of the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms, Dr Chemuta Divine Banda has disclosed that the human rights situation in Cameroon in 2016 was characterized by strike actions which extended into 2017. He also revealed that Human Rights were violated by both the government and protesters.
He made the revelation last April 20, 2017 at the Chamber of Commerce in Yaoundé while chairing the 22nd Ordinary Session of the commission focused on the adoption of the 2016 report on the State of Human Rights in Cameroon.
In a chat with reporters, Dr Chemuta Divine Banda explained that “Today we adopted our 2016 report. We noted that there is a link between 2016 and now because the strike actions which started last year are continuing this year. You can see that a lot of efforts are being deplored and we, at the level of the Commission are happy to have played our role in sensitizing the public, both the authorities and civil society on how to go about finding solutions to the crisis. We continue to hope and we have been following keenly the implementation of some of the recommendations which we made to the government. We asked them to be proactive; informing the people on what they want to do for them and how they intend to go about it. We hear on daily basis the steps being taken by government to end the crisis, some of them spearheaded by the Minister of State for Justice and others by Ministers of Education.”
The Chairperson stressed that “we like our country to regain a state of normalcy and we are praying that these things could be over.”
He declared that in the current socio-political unrest in the North West and South West Regions, human rights were violated by both the government and protesters.
Other points handled by members during their 22nd ordinary session included, the examination of the 2018 draft budget of the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms, discussions on the Anglophone problem and the Eseka train derailment incident.