Speaking while opening the workshop, the Chairman of Cameroon’s National Human Rights Commission, Dr Divine Chemuta Banda, said, “We have to start calling attention to the need to see that our ladies should not only be dancers and vote-givers, but that they are candidates who can be elected to play important roles in the various organs”. Cameroon, he said, has ratified many international instruments relating to the civil and political rights of women and the country’s revised Constitution of January 18, 1996 in its preamble, also states that all citizens are equal and have the same rights without discrimination. Despite all these, the civil and political rights of women are violated, notably with regard to landed property, succession, employment, vote and the right to stand as candidates in elections.
The Yaounde workshop organisers in a document, give startling statistics on the participation of women in Cameroon’s political life. Taking into account the 2007 legislative and council elections, only 25 women were elected into the National Assembly that has 180 seats, indicating a representation of only 13.89 percent. For council elections, out of 10,632 municipal councillors, there are only 1,651 women. They further revealed that in the June 30, 2009 cabinet reshuffle, there were only six female members of government, compared to 55 male members, representing 10 percent.
Themes chosen for the workshop were intended to raise the awareness of participants for them to carry out the sensitisation crusade. They acquired knowledge on the objectives of the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms, involvement of women in the electoral process in Cameroon, legal instruments on the rights of women to participate in the electoral process, as well as disabled women and elections.
