The technical validation process of the draft of the plan started in Yaounde on March 12, 2014.

Officials of the Ministry of Justice, experts and human rights stakeholders in Cameroon will today, March 13, 2014 give a technical endorsement to the draft National Plan

of Action for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the country for the period 2015 to 2019. The stakeholders started meeting in a validation workshop in Yaounde yesterday, March 12.

The Minister Delegate at the Ministry of Justice, Jean-Pierre Fogui who chaired the opening ceremony on behalf of the Minister of State for Justice, Laurent Esso, described the draft plan of action as a mirror that will reflect the Cameroonian reality. The draft plan of action, he stated, had two parts.

The first one concerns the situational analysis of human rights in Cameroon with focus on the reality on the ground, stakes and strategies. The second part of the plan of action focuses on the road maps that are detailed out in four programmes.  Each of the programmes has specific actions and activities to be undertaken by each stakeholder in the human rights domain. The programmes hinge on the four classical aspects of presenting annual human rights report that are: civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights; cross-cutting issues; and finally cooperation and follow up.

Work of the draft plan of action for the promotion and protection of human rights in Cameroon takes into consideration the current context. Jean-Pierre Fogui said that in the past decades, government has made much efforts to ensure the respect and promotion of rights. However, government efforts are blurred by disinformation, defamation and manipulation broadcast by some media organs and in reports of some civil society organizations.

He disclosed that Cameroon has the most diversified and freer press in all of black Africa. The country, he disclosed, has 650 print media organs, 100 tele-distribution operators, 80 non-commercial radio stations, 50 commercial radio stations and 20 television channels. The challenges on the ground, the roadmaps validated in the new plan of action, will distinguish what is necessary and feasible; what is wished for and what is possible and between ideals and realities so as to guide priorities.