Stakeholders in election matters in the country are sharpening skills on the proper way of respecting human rights of all citizens, irrespective of race, sex and age before, during and after elections. They hold that elections where all and sundry participate in a level playing field, with the respect of the rights of all the participants, are not only free, fair and transparent, but equally violence-free.

A three-day workshop to increase the understanding of political parties on their responsibility to respect human rights in elections went underway at the Yaounde Djeuga Palace Hotel yesterday June 14. Jointly organised by the UN Centre for Human Rights and Freedoms in Central Africa in partnership with Elections Cameroon, (ELECAM), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and ONU Femmes, the Yaounde confab seeks to bring political parties to a proper understanding and respect of human rights in all its facets.

In one of the speeches during the workshop opener yesterday, the Regional Representative of the UN Centre for Human Rights and Freedoms in Central Africa, Maarit Kohonen Sheriff, said transparent elections are part of good governance that the Centre, like the other workshop organisers, advocate. “We want to avoid human rights violations and violence during elections. We want to ensure that elections are free, fair and transparent and also that everybody is included without discrimination”, she said. She felt that ignorance is to blame for the usual electoral complaints. “I have the conviction that if at this level, things are not advancing well, it is often due to lack of knowledge, information and ignorance of standard. We still have a bit of time; ELECAM has shown that it is quite open to gender issues, to ensuring that minorities participate in elections. I think we are taking an important step because we are reinforcing the understanding of political parties on their own responsibility to respect human rights. People who don’t know can’t do it”, she noted.

Like Mrs Maarit Kohonen Sheriff, Dr Samuel Fonkam Azu’u, Chairman of ELECAM, Marie Goretti Nduwayo of ONU Femmes and Violet Kakyomya, Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP, as well as the Minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family, Marie-Thérèse Abena Ondoa, advocated better conditions so that women, people with disabilities, indigenous people and other marginalised groups can feel part of all electoral processes and exercise their civic responsibilities in choosing their leaders. Through paper presentations and plenary discussions, participants are handling topics like, “International and regional norms on human rights vis-à-vis elections”, “The role of political parties in the representation of women in politics, and “Electoral processes and human rights: What experience to share”, among others.