CAMEROON: RIGHTS ABUSES IN "HOMOSEXUALITY" PROSECUTIONS

Cameroon prosecutes people for consensual same-sex conduct more aggressively than almost any country in the world, four human rights organizations said in a report released today. The organizations – Alternatives-Cameroun, Association for the Defense of Gays and Lesbians (ADEFHO), the Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS), and Human Rights Watch – found that at least 28 people have been prosecuted for same-sex conduct in Cameroon since 2010. Most cases are marked by grave human rights violations, including torture, forced confessions, denial of access to legal counsel, and discriminatory treatment by law enforcement and judicial officials.

The 55-page report, “Guilty by Association: Human Rights Violations in the Enforcement of Cameroon’s Anti-Homosexuality Law,” presents 10 case studies of arrests and prosecutions under article 347 bis of Cameroon’s penal code, which punishes “sexual relations between persons of the same sex” with up to five years in prison. The report found that most people charged with homosexuality are convicted based on little or no evidence. The report includes numerous cases in which the law against homosexual conduct was used for settling scores, showing how the law is easily subject to abuse. Dozens of Cameroonians do jail time solely because they are suspected of being gay or lesbian, the groups found.

“It’s regrettable that our country stands out as one of the few countries in the world that regularly prosecutes people for same-sex conduct,” said Dominique Menoga, executive director at CAMFAIDS, a Yaoundé-based organization. “Cameroon’s government says it’s committed to respecting human rights, but its actions, when it comes to sexual and gender minorities, suggest exactly the opposite.”

I think that that things only happen in poor contries because there people don't respect at all human rights. In my country I think that it would never happen because everything is very different. In Cameroon now it's happening that people are being prosecuted for same-sex conduct.

I think that we can't do anything for changing some things and for forcing them to obey some rights. People  from there are the only persons who can change this.