Human Rights: Prison situations call for concern

In order to find ways and means to address the problems of prison settings, a meeting will take place from January 27 to 29 in Yaounde.

Being a prisoner was never easy. This goes further when one is detained in a Cameroonian prison.

Despite efforts by civil society, non-governmental organizations and sometimes the government to improve the conditions of detention in these prisons places, much remains to be done. This is mainly a problem of overcrowding, hygiene, and cleanliness.

According to the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms (NCHRF), the cramped and unsanitary premises are also a major obstacle to protecting the rights of detained persons.

To remedy this state of things, the NCHRF, in collaboration with the Cameroon educational guidance center (Coecam) and the European Union has set up a project named "Project Prisons," which presents the inventory of prisons of Yaoundé, Douala, Bafoussam, Garoua, and Mbalmayo.

To update the problems facing these places of detention, the three institutions are organizing a meeting from January 27 to 29 in Yaoundé. This meeting will bring together nearly 100 participants from 10 regions of the country and from civil society, justice, law enforcement forces, the prison administration, just to name a few.

The aim here will be to attract the attention of public authorities and the public on the prison situation.

"The rights of detainees in Cameroon are not always respected. Hardly have they passed through the doors of the prison population that consider them as outcasts. The role of the prison should not only be to punish but to rehabilitate the offender," said Francis Kammogne, the leader of the project.