Cameroon :UN Inaugurates Rights Resource Centre in Buea

Officials inside the Regional Human Rights Resource Centre-Buea 

By Christopher Ambe

The United Nations Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa in Yaounde was  in Buea from December 2-10, 2020, and carried out  a series of human rights activities including the launching of the first-ever Regional Human Rights Resource Centre.

The UN Center began its activities at Mountain Hotel Buea with a three-day (December 2-4) “Sensitization Workshop for Media Professionals on Human Rights and the Socio-economic Impacts of COVID-19 in Cameroon, during which journalists were drilled on communicating from a human rights perspective and they drafted COVIC-19 sensitization messages.

The three-day workshop, which assembled 30 journalists from Northwest,Southwest,Littoral and Centre regions, was facilitated among others, by Fonyuy Kiven Timothy,Human Rights Officer ,Information & Advocacy at the UN Human Rights Regional Office for Central Africa.

 The workshop was followed by rights sensitization visits to schools in Fako Division led by Fonyuy Kiven Timothy, and some Human Rights journalists.

Then, on December 10, 2020, which was the 72^nd Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,Louis-Marie Bouaka,director of the UN Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa, inaugurated  the first-ever Human Rights Resource Centre  in Buea.

The Buea resource centre is a partnership between the UN Rights Center in Yaounde and the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), Buea.

The HR resource center, which is located at CHRDA premises, is open to the public for education and research.

CHRDA,which has existed for over 15 years, was founded by   Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho, who is also its CEO. Agbor Nkongho is a renowned Cameroonian rights crusader.

“We hope the HR Resource Centre would be useful to everyone; it is open to the public,” said Agbor Nkongho at its inauguration,which was witnessed among officials by Christopher Tambe Tiku, Regional Secretary of the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms, Southwest Region. 

Agbor Nkongho was thankful to the UN HR Regional Centre for its support towards the realization of the HR resource centre.

“Let us keep fighting against injustices in all forms. Let us ensure that we are the change we need to make Cameroon a better country.”

Every year, December 10 is celebrebarted as International Human Rights Day. The theme for 2020 International Human Rights Day (IHRD)   was “Recover Better”.

 Mr. Bouaka, who inaugurated the HR resource Center later, same day, held a press conference on the 2020 IHRD and co-chaired the launch of a CHRDA handbook on Human Rights at Mountain Hotel,Buea.

“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights sets out a broad          range of fundamental rights and freedoms to which all of us are entitled,” the Director of the UN Human Rights center told the press conference. “It guarantees the rights of every individual everywhere, without distinction based on nationality, place of residence,gender,national or ethnic origin,religion,language,or any other status.”

Answering questions from reporters, the Director emphasized the relevance Human Rights in daily lives.

With regards to the Anglophone Crisis,Mr. Bouaka regretted that “ the right to education has been violently undermined along  with the right to life”. He added, “It is important to recover better the schooling conditions of children in the Northwest and Southwest regions, but also the North.”

The director admitted that 2020 was a very challenging year for human rights as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, which he said exacerbated the already existing human rights concerns within the sub region.

Group  picture during the inauguration of the Human Rights Centre

“Our capacity to implement the sub regional programme was greatly reduced due to the barrier measures put in place by governments of the sub region”, noted the director who added that thanks to ICT the UN HR Centre touched “indispensable targets with key human rights messages around the COVID-19 pandemic, and advocated for human rights complaint measures to deal with the virus”

He hoped that in 2021 the HR Centre would “get more people to know about their rights and thus contribute to s society of Mutual respect, accountability and the rule of law.”

At the book launch, Mr. Bouaka hailed CHRDA for publishing a handbook on human rights, which he recommended as a “unique tool for national human rights actors.”

The Nigerian Consul-General for the Southwest and Northwest regions attended the press conference, book launch and inauguration of the HR resource centre.