Cameroon’s Constitution upholds the principle of gender equality. However, the country has a complex legal system comprising a mix of Napoleonic Code and common law, as well as customary and written law. This structure is often an obstacle to gender equality. Local traditions also remain very strong, and have negative effects on the situation of Cameroonian women. To date, the country has no legal definition of discrimination and some points of civil law remain prejudicial against women.
Cameroonian women have little protection in regard to family matters. The law fixes the minimum age for marriage at 15 for women and 18 for men. Not surprisingly, early marriage is pervasive, particularly in remote provinces. Many girls are married off by their families by the age of 12. A 2004 United Nations report estimated that 36 per cent of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 were married, divorced or widowed.
Polygamy is permitted by law and deeply rooted in tradition: more than 50 per cent of Cameroon’s men are estimated to have multiple wives.
Parental authority is shared equally by fathers and mothers, unless one spouse is deprived of parental rights because of questionable behaviour, or loss of physical or mental capacity. In the event of divorce, the husband’s wishes determine the custody of children over the age of six.
Cameroon’s national courts affirm the principle of gender equality with respect to inheritance rights on intestacy. Customary practices such as levirate (which forces women to marry a man from the family of a deceased husband) infringe upon women’s right to inherit. In the absence of a will, the extent to which women may inherit from their husbands is normally governed by traditional law and customs that vary between ethnic groups. In many traditional societies, for example, custom grants greater authority and benefits to male over female heirs.
Women in Cameroon have relatively few laws to protect their physical integrity. Violence against women remains high, in part because the law fails to impose effective penalties against men who commit acts of domestic violence. Spousal abuse is not viewed as legal grounds for divorce. There are no reliable statistics on violence against women in the country, but the large number of newspaper reports (estimated to be only a fraction of actual incidents) indicates that it is widespread. Rape is a criminal offence, but men are exempted from punishment if they agree to marry the victim.
Cameroon does not have in place a law to prohibit female genital mutilation (FGM). While not practised across the entire country, FGM does continue to be prevalent in isolated areas in three of the ten provinces (including some areas of the far northern, eastern and southwestern provinces). Internal migration has contributed to the spread of FGM to different parts of the country. The World Health Organization (WHO), reports that FGM affects some 20 per cent of all Cameroonian women. This masks the actual prevalence in particular communities: in the southwestern and far northern provinces, FGM is estimated to affect virtually all Muslim girls and two-thirds of Christian girls.
There is no evidence to suggest that Cameroon is a country of concern in relation to missing women.
Legislation in support of women’s financial autonomy is weak in Cameroon, often because of the conflicting legal systems and customs. The law itself does not discriminate against women, but socio-cultural practices continue to restrict women’s access to land. Legally, any person may individually or collectively acquire land rights, as long as a land title that designates such property rights is obtained. However, under most customs women are considered stateless and therefore unfit to own land, which by its very nature is fixed.
Both the Civil Code and the Commercial Code fall short of fully recognising women’s right of ownership and access to property other than land. The property rights of women are especially limited: husbands manage the community property and also administer any personal property owned by their wives with no obligation to obtain consent when making decisions. Wives are also sometimes at a disadvantage before the customary courts in that they must provide evidence of their contribution to conjugal assets.
Cameroon’s current credit legislation does not discriminate against women, but several factors make it difficult for the majority of women to gain access to bank loans. For example, legislative provisions restrict women’s legal capacity to offer guarantees; thus, some banks demand the husband’s guarantee as a condition for granting a loan. Women also have difficulties obtaining credit because they are seldom able to meet the financial criteria of credit institutions.
Conflicting legal systems also affect women’s ability to participate in the workforce. The 1981 Civil Code allows husbands to oppose their wives’ constitutional right to work. Similarly, the law gives women the freedom to organise their own businesses, but the Commercial Code allows husbands to end their wives’ commercial activity – simply by notifying the clerk of the commerce tribunal of their opposition based upon the family’s interest.
Women in Cameroon have relatively little civil liberty in regard to freedom of movement. Husbands make the choice of family residence, and the wives are obliged to follow. By contrast, they are not restricted in terms of freedom of dress.
Afrol News (n.d.), Gender Profile: Cameroon, www.afrol.com/Categories/Women/profiles/cameroon_women.htm, accessed: January 2008.
CEDAW (Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women) (1999), Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: Cameroon, Initial Periodic Report of States Parties, CEDAW/C/CMR/1, CEDAW, New York, NY.
Center for Reproductive Rights (2003), Women of the World – Laws and Policies Affecting Their Reproductive Lives, pp. 66-88, Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, New York, NY.
CIDA-INC (Industrial Cooperation Program) (2002), INC Gender Profile: Cameroon, CIDA-INC, Gatineau, QC.
ECOSOC (United Nations Economic and Social Council) (2003), Integration of the Human Rights of Women and the Gender Perspective: Violence Against Women, E/CN.4/2003/75/Add.1, UN, New York, NY.
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development), ILC (International Land Coalition) (2004), Rural Women’s Access to Land and Property in Selected Countries: Progress Towards Achieving the Aims of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, FAO Gender and Population Division, IFAD Technical Advisory Division, and ILC, Rome.
IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union) (n.d.), Legislation and Other National Provisions: Cameroon, Parliamentary Campaign “Stop Violence Against Women”: Female Genital Mutilation, IPU, Geneva, www.ipu.org/wmn-e/fgm-prov.htm, accessed 26 July 2007.
OMCT (Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture) (2005), Violence Against Women in Cameroon, a Report to the Committee Against Torture, OMCT, Geneva.
UN (United Nations) (2004), World Fertility Report 2003, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, New York, NY.
US Department of State (2006), International Religious Freedom Report: Cameroon, US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Washington, DC.
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