Building a Global Conscience

Kumba, August 24, 2009

Two of Global Conscience’s International interns August 24 suffered over six hours of detention on the orders of the Senior Divisional Officer for Meme before released without any charges. Their camera memory card is however withheld by authorities of the territorial surveillance police in Kumba.

Brendan Fletcher and Barbara Schuler were arrested at the premises of the SDO’s office as the witnessed a strike action by redundant defunct National Produce Marketing Board workers agitating against the non payment of their redundancy dues government recently announced had been disbursed.

Brendan and Barbara were accosted by the SDO’s police aide as the took photographs of the demonstrators from within the premises of the SDO’s office and they deleted the pictures from their camera. The aide however took the interns to the SDO who invited the territorial surveillance authorities to take them away.

No statements were recorded from the interns at the police station but the officer retained the memory card of the Camera. They asked the interns to go home and come back the next day.

When Brendan asked what his offense was, one of the arresting officers simply replied that he could communicate with their bosses and the administrative hierarchy and Global Conscience will be closed.

Brendan has made a complaint to the legal department in Kumba illegal detention and retention of property.

GCI’s Chief Executive Officer, who drove into Kumba from Buea upon hearing about the arrests, said GCI is disturbed with the harassment of its staff/interns as this jeopardizes the human rights protection mandate of the organisation.

“Cameroon is a state of law and GCI respects all the laws in Cameroon and constituted authority”, said the human rights activist. “If our interns have committed an offense then we would like for due process of law to be applied so that their treatment is not seen as arbitrary”.

GCI is however consulting with key administrative authorities to ensure that the situation is corrected as soon as possible.

Buea, August 22, 2009

Global Conscience Initiative calls on the Minister of Communication to review his decision and remove the ban on Sky One Radio Station in Yaounde, Cameroon. Communication’s Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary accuses the radio station of “pretending to solve social problems” after the radio in one of its programmes solicited support to assist a HIV-positive woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo get back home.

The Communication Ministry in a first letter to Sky One Radio ordered for a suspension of the programme, The Tribunal, from the air waves and subsequently ordered the the presenter of the programme, Duval Lebel Eballe, be fired. The Communications Ministry subsequently held talks with the authorities of Sky One Radio that culminated in the changing of the name of the programme. However, the Ministry wanted the complete removal of the programme and not its christening, and thus moved to ban the Radio station for “recurring violation of legal and administrative regulation of media laws”.

While Global Conscience appreciates the Communication Ministries move to dialogue with Sky One Radio on the issue, GCI maintains that the decision to close the radio station is extreme and amounts to stifling the freedom of expression guaranteed in the preamble of the constitution of Cameroon.

GCI Chief Executive Officer Samba Churchill said the Communication Ministry is playing the role of both referee and judge in this case and that the decision lacked due process of law that should be used to regulate media conduct and abuse of free speech.

“In the interest of the law and of freedom of expression, the Communication Ministry should have taken the matter to the Cameroon Communication Council and, if it fails, to the courts that have the competence to determine if the conduct and practice of Sky One Radio violated any laws”, Samba said, adding that the closure of the radio station by the Minister leaves the impression that Cameroon is not a state of law.

The human rights activist acknowledges that Journalists can, and do err in their practice GCI is therefore calling on the Ministry of Communication to remove the ban on Sky One radio and take judicial procedures to sanction the station for any defaulting practices so that justice is not only seen as served in Cameroon. Failing this, GCI urges the authorities of Sky One to challenge the ban before the administrative bench of the supreme court as required by law.

Kumba, August 12, 2009

On 11 August, 2009, in an in-camera preliminary investigation in the case of State vs. Victor Amandi, President of High Court III, Justice Mepha J., made a precedent decision regarding the compulsory nature of state-appointed counsel in capital punishment cases.  In interpreting the applicability of the new Criminal Procedure Code, Justice Mepha ruled that, although the Code normally requires either a state-appointed or defendant-hired counsel, in exceptional cases, a third-party NGO such as Global Conscience Initiative (GCI) may appoint pro bono counsel to represent the accused. 

The circumstances leading to this ruling were that the accused, a juvenile Nigerian with no proof of age, was accused of murder in November of 2008, and has been remanded in awaiting trial custody for the last nine months alongside adult detainees.  GCI strongly opposes the mixing of juveniles with adult detainees under any circumstances, but especially when the accused has yet to be convicted and has not even been afforded a preliminary hearing. 

As a result of the efforts of GCI Prisoners’ Rights interns Barbara Schuler and Brendan Fletcher, Justice Mepha agreed to allow Barrister Philip Awutah to remain the lead counsel for Victor Amandi and to grant bail at the subsequent hearing, provided a surety comes forward. 

GCI views this development as a great victory, which will pave the way toward future representation by qualified and independent pro bono lawyers, even where the state would normally provide for legal representation. 

14/12/07