They were trained in a two-day seminar in Yaounde last weekend.

Some 30 Judicial Police officers drawn from the National Gendarmerie and Police force nationwide are now better armed with knowledge to effectively carry out their mission as key actors in administering justice in Cameroon. They were schooled in a seminar at the Maison de Combattant in Yaounde on November 15 and 16, 2012 with particular focus on building their capacities on national and international human rights instruments, knowledge on human rights mechanisms, mastery of human rights regulations in relation to arrest, investigation and detention and the better way of protecting the rights of detained people.

Addressing the Judicial Police Officers on behalf of the Chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms, the Chair of the Sub-committee on Civil and Political Rights, Cheikh Hamadou Banoufe, stated their key role in the judicial system. The fate of the suspects largely depend on the Judicial Police Officers who manipulate on a daily basis their files and whose reports are decisive on some decisions on the execution of justice. The Commission official stated that some unjust sentences passed are a consequence of the actions of a Judicial Police Officer, stating that social security, stability, tranquility and peace largely depend on their actions.

The training of Judicial Police officers is part of the ongoing training of different human rights stakeholders. This is within the background of Cameroon’s preparation to face the United Nations Human Rights Council in April 2013 for the Universal Periodic Review of the country’s respect of engagements in diverse sectors of human rights.