HIC-HLRN & CSOs Address UNCESCR 22 November 2011

Statement
by civil society on the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in Cameroon

Presented
at the 47th session of ESCR Committee in Geneva, 22 November 2011.

Preamble

Organizations
of civil society, the signatories to this statement, note that Cameroon has
significant resources to ensure a better protection and greater respect for
ESCR in favor of its citizens. But in fact, the resources invested produce an
effect and a very low impact on the lives of the majority of the population.
Corruption that plagues the public services and economy-wide limits the
efficiency and effectiveness of programs. Add to these factors, the low
inclusion of ESCR in budgeting and public policy. In addition, some laws and
regulations guaranteeing the ESCR and demanding their justifiability are
lacking. In several sectors, the institutions set up to steer public policies
have not adapted to changing conditions and demands of modernity. Cultural
influences are many and strategies implemented to minimize negative impacts on
the promotion of ESCR in particular those of women are mostly of a very low
efficiency. With these findings, the signatory organizations of this statement
present the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights with the
following recommendations for and the State Party and Government of Cameroon.

Recommendations:

For
implementation of the right of indigenous peoples

1.
Promote corporate social responsibility to ensure compliance and protection of
ESCR of indigenous people living near major structural projects selected within
the GESP;

2.
Implement education programs and outreach to promote the participation of local
populations in different phases of these programs

For the
use of resources in the progressive realization of ESCR

3. Sign
and ratify the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR;

4. Take
steps to improve access of civil society to information and strengthen citizen
control of public policy.


For the implementation of the right to gender equality

5.
Develop and adopt a law on social security for all, taking into account the
informal sector, domestic and farm workers;

6.
Develop and implement eligibility criteria for social housing programs by
including measures to facilitate the inclusion of women;

7. Adopt
and promulgate the Family Code and the law on violence against women;

8. Make
available disaggregated data on such an approach the implementation of ESCR in
favor of minorities, ethnic groups, urban and rural populations.

For the
implementation of the free choice to work and the protective measures

9.
Implement facilities for collective action for local initiatives of solidarity
by seeking the help of the specialized agencies of international cooperation;

10.
Recognize the legitimacy of informal sector associations self-promoted and
involve them in planning operations that impact on their operations.

Regarding
the right to fair and favorable working conditions

11.
Specify the basis for calculating the minimum wage and revalorize by increasing
it to a threshold that would guarantee workers the right to an adequate
standard of living and increase the salaries of civil servants at least as it
was before the devaluation in 1994;

12.
Define the legal status of agricultural and domestic work in accordance with
the Convention of 16 June 2011 on domestic workers and promote the organization
of workers into unions in these sectors.

Regarding
the right to social security

13.
Implement the national strategy for social development adopted in 2004 and
extend coverage of social security to workers in informal and agricultural
sectors;

14.
Complete the code in working with specific texts on the rights of disabled
workers in the informal sector, domestic workers and agricultural as well as
specifications on the operation of their unions;

15. Take
steps to facilitate the access of small rural producers to productive resources
especially financial, technological and land.

About the
implementation of housing rights

16.
Passed a law and a national strategy to facilitate the development and
operations of unions and cooperative housing projects;

17. Set
up a guarantee fund to mortgage, a national office for social housing, a grant
of building materials, a housing bank to support housing programs, including
those worn by private developers, the cooperatives and mutual housing;

18.
Develop and implement national policy on resettlement guaranteeing the rights
of victims of the operations of eviction and expropriation of public utilities.

Regarding
the right to food

19. Adopt
all needed adequate measures to protect small-scale producers and communities
against the negative effects of land grabbing and large scale projects on
communal land and ensure that land negotiations are participatory and
transparent with clear monitoring and complaint mechanisms.

20.
Include the right to adequate food, access to land, and other key elements
related to Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in a specific section of the
constitution.

21. Speed
up process for the revision of the 1974 land tenure ordinance and take into
consideration customary land rights and women`s access to and control of land.

Regarding
the implementation of the right to health

22.
Implement the national strategy for the promotion and development of mutual
health adopted in 2006;

23. Accelerate
the adoption of the law on mutuality in order to create an environment for the
development of micro-health insurance;

24.
Increase the share of budget allocated to health financing, in accordance with
WHO recommendations and commitments made ​​by Heads of State and Government at
the 2001 summit in Abuja, Nigeria.

Regarding
the implementation of the right to education

25. Take
steps to minimize the negative impact of parents` associations on the
implementation of free primary education and the rising cost of education in
secondary education;

26. Bring
the education funding by 7% of GDP in 2011 to 10% by 2015.

Done at
Geneva, 21 November 2011

 

Signatories

Platform ESCR Cameroon

PWESCR

FIAN

TDHF

HIC-HLRN and Collectif Inter-africain des Habitants–CIAH /Cameroun

RAPDAC


Parallel Report on the Right to Housing and Forced Evictions
in Cameroon, 2011 (in French)

Parallel Report on the Right to Housing and Forced Evictions
in Cameroon, 2010 (in French)