Cameroon: Legal Practitioners Championing Fight Against Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is on the rise but under-reported in Cameroon. Campaigners say official figures account for only a fraction of the women who have suffered - or even died - at the hands of their partners

By Boris Esono Nwenfor

BUEA, July 16, 2023 – According to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Family, thirty-four (34) young girls and women in Cameroon have lost their lives to some form of violence in the first half of 2023.

Most of the cases were reported to be domestic violence. Some of the women found dead were either murdered or battered to death by an intimate partner, according to a report by Cameroon’s national broadcaster, CRTV.

The fight against domestic violence is not new in the country. For generations now, legal practitioners, women activists, and civil society organizations have been leading the fight, which mostly affected women and girls. Like Cameroon, the case of domestic violence transcends borders. According to a World Bank statistic, about 736 million women and girls worldwide have faced domestic violence in one shape or form.

In Cameroon, domestic violence is mostly considered a private affair, with many women and girls sometimes dying in silence. Legal practitioners are not sufficiently trained in attending to such matters. The tide is, however, changing as legal practitioners have been schooled on how to handle domestic violence cases.

The two-day workshop strengthened the capacities of these legal experts and equipped them with skills on how to effectively deal with cases of domestic violence. Some of the issues tackled during the training include; the fundamentals of violence, the responsibility of the state in combating violence, access to justice for victims of domestic violence, persecution of cases of domestic violence, intimate partner violence, and protection of vulnerable persons from domestic violence.

Over the past few decades, gender-based violence has increasingly come to be recognized as a serious problem at the international level, not only for women but also for the attainment of equality, development, and peace. The issue has also become a priority for women’s organizations in sub-Saharan Africa and a subject for feminist thought during the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development and Peace, and in recent years governments in sub-Saharan Africa have also begun to devote attention to the issue.

Estimates published by WHO indicate that globally about 1 in 3 (30%) of women worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. In Cameroon, like in most countries across the globe, violence against women and girls is a preoccupying reality.

In 2010 alone, 81,000 women and girls were reportedly killed in different parts of the world, with 47,000 women killed by an intimate partner or family member.  There has been a dramatic increase in sexual violence and assault cases toward women in the North and the North West and South West regions of Cameroon, and it is reported that the main perpetrators of the attacks are “armed separatists, military personnel and civilians

“By waking up to the news of women being killed by their intimate partners or other men, Cameroonian women are reminded that not only are they not safe, but their bodies and their lives do not belong to them. They are subtly and indirectly reminded that when in a union, there is no way out for them except through violence or death and that men hold the ultimate power over them,” Corinne Aurelie Moussi, an International Law and International Relations graduate from the University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University.

“In a nutshell, the violence women are subjected to serves to keep women in check, into submission and silence. This female fear factory is effective because it relies on the privilege of the aggressor and the vulnerability of the victim. The aggressor dwelling in his privilege and safety is aware that he has the power and can harm/violate as he pleases without any consequences.”

As cases of domestic violence remain rife in the country and across the world, human rights groups amongst other stakeholders say enough is enough. They want an end to this illness and are calling for collaboration to weed out this cancer worm that is eating deep into the society.