Building a Global Conscience

14/12/07

After Banjul Decision: Cameroon Government not still ready for dialogue

Filed under: News releases

Heavily armed forces October 28 disrupted a meeting of Southern Cameroons Associations scheduled to launch a book on the recent African Commission ruling in the case pitting the Southern Cameroons National Council and La Republique du Cameroun.

The Liberal Democratic Alliance party organised the meeting and its president, Mola Njoh Litumbe, said he duly declared the meeting to the local administraion in accordance with the law on freedom of assembly and had no objection to holding the meeting.

The meeting brought together over fifty southern Cameroonians and started at about 3.30 pm but thirty minutes later, police and gedarmes in high anti riot gear clamped down on the meeting and seized all the books and documents that were on display. Moment later, the Senior Divisional Officer for Fako arrived the scene and said Mola Njoh Litumbe had misled him about the agenda of the meeting. He characteised the meeting as secessionist and said he could not allow it.

The forces refused to return the seized books and documents and a microphone even after Mola Njoh requested as such and proposed the forces keep some of the documents to inform themselves with. The adamant forces simply asked everyone to leave.

One of the SCNC legal advisers, Barrister Bobga Harmony Mbuton, lamented that they had spent money to print the books and documents, hire the hall and mobilise logistics for the meeting.

The LBA organised meeting comes on the threshold of a ruling of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights recommending dialogue between the people of the Southern Cameroons and the government of La Republic following a plaint by the former of excessive human rights abuses and marginalisation of her peoples.

The Commission established that the Southern Cameroons qualified under the Arican Charter to be called a people and had a right to the claim of self determination but recommended that the parties initiate dialogue to reconcile the differences and end the abuse against the Southern Cameroons. The ACHPR gave the disputants 180 days to initiate dialogue and to report any advancement and challenges to her.

However, the Cameroon government authorities have simply misrepresented the decision of the ACHPR as a victory for them over the “secessionist” SCNC and are determined to maintain the statusquo. A communiqué from Cameroon’s Communication Minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, simply states that the ACHPR threw away the SCNC case as non-substantial.

GCI Presents Kumba Prison Report to Domestic Hierarchy & Potential NGO Partners

Filed under: News releases

Global Conscience Initiative has called on the Cameroon judicial hierarchy to investigate and prosecute those who have abused and tortured prisoners in Kumba.

The call to all levels of judicial authority follows a thorough investigation and report by Global Conscience Initiative into the torture and medical neglect of prisoners by administrators at Kumba Principal Prison. Three prisoners reportedly died because of the torture and lack of medical care over a period in 2008, while more than a dozen others were left scarred for life and or severely handicapped.

The GCI report focused particularly on an incident of significant and prolonged torture of detainees on August 18, 2008. GCI has developed a multi-pronged strategy to bring justice to the victims and the families of those who died. The strategy is also aimed at reforming prison conditions in Cameroon. From State Counsel to the Minister of Justice, the first stage was to exhaust all domestic remedies for justice.

In a number of meetings with the Senior State Counsel at the High Court in Kumba, GCI staff lodged a formal complaint and presented the report on the torture incidents. State Counsel ordered another independent investigation. Its findings matched those in the GCI report and counsel agreed to prosecute the administrators responsible.

On October 13, GCI Board Chairman Pende Eddie Nelson, Programme Director Justine Lucas, and GCI Prisoner Rights intern Brendan Fletcher, met the Procureur General in Buea in regards to the GCI report. The Procureur-General argued that as a developing country, Cameroon had fewer rights obligations than others, despite that the Cameroon constitution states international instruments supersede domestic laws.

The Procureur General, however, called the Senior State Counsel to discuss action on the torture incidents. He asked the State Counsel to forward his own report on the pending prosecutions. This has added to the pressure on counsel to act. On October 19, in Yaounde, Lucas and Fletcher presented the report on Kumba prison to the Secretary of State and Inspector-General of Cameroon.

After much discussion between all on the human rights situation in the prisons, the Secretary of State promised to analyse the report as well as forward it to the Minister of Justice.

Now to the United Nations GCI has now exhausted all domestic remedies and so can file complaints at the United Nations under the Convention Against Torture or International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, should the Cameroon authorities fail to act.

However, GCI remains hopeful the Senior State Counsel will persist in the prosecutions of the offenders, thereby fulfilling Cameroon’s international human rights obligations. International pressure GCI is pursuing partnerships with national and international human rights NGOs to facilitate the exchange of resources and ideas, and increase the international pressure on Cameroon.

The hope is to compel authorities to bring justice to the victims of these atrocious acts of torture and ameliorate the deplorable conditions and treatment of prisoners in the Kumba Principal Prison.

GCI is already partnered with Volunteers for Prison Inmates, the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), the Progressive Initiative for Cameroon (PICAM), and Action Des Chretiens Pour l’Abolition de la Torture (ACAT) au Cameroon.

14/12/07

GCI trains Journalists on writing skills

Filed under: News releases

Buea, September 1, 2009

Participants at Media workshop pose for the pressOver 15 Journalists and media students from Buea attented the GCI Media Watch Project’s first workshop last week. The workshop can be said to have been well received.

The workshop on August 28 at the function room at GCI headquarters in Buea, covered a range of topics under basic news writing skills, including constructing an introductory paragraph, choosing an angle and where to find sources.

All attendees said they gained some learning from the workshop, and appreciated the materials handed out, which included CDs containing articles and advice on writing, among them the Reuters handbook of journalism.

Most attendees said they would look at implementing changes in their writing. Some added that they would like some more practical exercises next time.

Taking this into consideration, GCI plans for its next workshop sessions to be on interview techniques which will include practical exercises such as role play and interview preparation.

This second workshop is likely to be at the end of September.



14/12/07

GCI interns arbitrarily detained

Filed under: News releases

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.

14/12/07

Cameroon Communication Minister’s Ban on Sky One Radio is Arbitrary

Filed under: News releases

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.

14/12/07

PRECEDENT DECISION ON INDEPENDENT PRO BONO LEGAL REPRESENTATION FOR DETAINEES

Filed under: News releases


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

GCI appeals ruling in habeas corpus application

Filed under: News releases

Buea, August 3, 2009

Global Conscience initiative today filed an appeal at the registry of the High Court in Buea challenging the ruling of the President of the Fako High Court setting aside a GCI application for the release of three suspects who have been in detention in the Buea Central Prisons for eleven months without charges.

High Court President Justice Forbang Leslie last July 27 had thrown out the GCI application stating that, having perused the “instruments of detention”, he believed and was convinced that the detention was legal.

The GCI appeal is based on two grounds. GCI maintains that the Learned Judge erred in law by giving insufficient reasons to ground the findings of the court that the detention of the applicants is not illegal, and also by misrepresentation of the documents of the case. GCI states in the appeal that the documents of the case includes (1) Three police custody orders issued by the Commissioner of Government of the Military Tribunal Buea on the 9 of October 2008 detaining the three applicants at the Central Prison Buea. (2) Three remand warrants dated 08/07/2009 issued by an Examining Magistrate detaining the three applicants and (3) the affidavit and further affidavit of the applicants.

GCI challenges that the three police custody orders incontrovertibly point to the fact that the three applicants were duly detained at the Central Prison Buea on the basis of police custody orders issued by the Commissioner of Government of the Military Tribunal Buea and not on the orders of an Examining Magistrate. Section 118(1) of the Criminal Procedure Code defines a police custody order to be a measure whereby for purposes of criminal investigations and the establishment of the truth, a suspect is detained in a judicial police cell, wherein he remains for a limited period available to and under the responsibility of a judicial police officer.

GCI asks in the appeal if it can be said that the inscription on the remand warrants dated 08/07/2009 and issued to regularise police custody orders of the Commissioner of Government be interpreted to mean that the Examining Magistrate remanded the applicants on the 09/10/2008?

GCI is therefore praying for the setting aside of the ruling of the High Court of Fako Division, and that the case be decided on the merits, while also asking the Court to find that the detention of the applicants is illegal, and order immediate release of the suspects.

Please contact gci269@gmail.com for more on the appeal

14/12/07

Judge throws out GCI application for release of suspects

Filed under: News releases

Buea, July 30 2009

The High Court of Fako Division, Buea,  July 27 threw out an application filed by Global Conscience Initiative (GCI) for the immediate release of three persons who have been in detention in the Buea Central Prison since August 20, 2008, stating that their detention is not illegal. Justice Forbang Leslie sitting with Mrs. Emoh and Mrs. Fankam as Registrars delivered the decision from his chambers in the absence of the respondents.

On July 15, 2009, GCI filed an application for the immediate release of Mr. Akwo Kevin, Itoe Elvis, and Momfor Jong David pursuant to Sections 584 and 585 of the Criminal Procedure Code on Habeas Corpus.

GCI attached a three-page affidavit to the application stating how a vigilante group arrested the trio from their homes in Kumba at night on August 14, 2008, handed them over to the police in Kumba where they were detained for one week , and then brought to the Buea Central prison. GCI also stated in the affidavit that the trio was simply put in prison with a police custody order and were detained for about 11 months without being brought before a judicial authority for arraignment or for their arrest and detention to be justified. To GCI, these consist of a serious breach of provisions of the Criminal Procedures in Cameroon on which grounds GCI hinged the application.

Shortly after GCI started investigations into the detention of the trio, GCI found remand warrants inserted in the prison files of the trio that were signed by the Examining Magistrate of the Military Tribunal in Buea on July 8, 2009, which is the same day that the Superintendent of Prisons of the Buea Central Prison was notified that the trio had been mistakenly detained on police custody orders rather than remand warrants

It is on the strength of this remand order that Justice Leslie ruled that the trio were “duly detained” and therefore should apply for bail before “the competent Judge of the Military Tribunal in Buea”.

GCI Chief Executive Officer, Samba Churchill, has said that GCI will appeal the ruling and maintained that the conduct of the arrest and detention clearly violated the provisions of the CPC.  The detention of the trio between August 20, 2008 and July 8, 2009 without a remand warrant cannot be legalized by belatedly issuing a remand warrant dated July 8, 2009.  “We do not think that it is appropriate to detain a suspect for 11 months without charging him nor bringing him before a judicial authority” said the CEO. “We have no doubt in our mind that the military authorities produced the instruments of detention only when we opened investigations into the detention of the suspects.”

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14/12/07

International Intern Donates FCFA 200.000 to GCI

Filed under: News releases

Moved by the bestiality of the human kind in the Kumba Central Prisons, International intern Marlies Rotshuizen has made a generous donation of FCFA 200.000, to assist the Prisoner’s Rights Project at the Global Conscience Initiative in Kumba

Ms. Rotshuizen is an international law student from Utretch University in the Netherlands who has interned on the Prisoner’s Rights Project for the past three months. She joined other international interns at GCI and together they investigated and documented conditions in the Kumba prisons working closely with indigent untried prisoners. Marlies said she was particular moved by one incident the prisoners of Kumba’s prison recounted that took place on August 18, 2008, when the prison administration used excessive force to quell an alleged riot in the prisons. She said she saw the evidence, the scars of torture, cruel and inhuman treatment on prisoners, and this touched her heart. She is determined to contribute that the kind of abuses that happened in the Kumba prison in August of 2008 does not repeat itself and would like for the perpetrators of the gory abuses to be brought to justice.

Global Conscience Initiative’s CEO expressed profound gratitude for her initiative and donation and has said the money will serve as an initial contribution for a Prisoners’ Rights Fund to be created.  Samba Churchill further said, “GCI will manage the fund judiciously to assist the prisoners of Kumba.  Her donation is extremely symbolical as it comes at a time when GCI is faced with a situation in the Kumba Principal Prison that appalls the human conscience. The welding of chains on human beings is not something one could imagine would take place any where in the world in this modern age of human rights.”

Mr. Churchill expressed the hope that other well meaning Cameroonians will emulate Marlies’ example and make a contribution towards alleviating the situation of the Kumba prisons and that of prisoners, especially that of persons in the awaiting trial section. “We all have a duty and a responsibility to look after prisoners because they are part of our community. Human Rights are inherent and universal rights.  Thus, prisoners should not be deprived of these rights because they remain human beings”, the Chief Executive said.

The Chief Executive also said the donation will be put into a special fund for the prisons that he christens the GCI Marrot Prisons Fund. He said GCI will lobby the public to make donations into the fund for which a special bank account will be created and use the fund exclusively for her prison work.

14/12/07

Global Conscience files for immediate release of suspects in Buea Prisons

Filed under: News releases

Buea, July 15, 2009

Global Conscience Initiative (GCI) today filed before the High Court of Fako Division “holden” at Buea an application for a Writ of Habeas Corpus to issue for the immediate release of three persons who have been in detention at the Buea Regional Prisons since August 2008. The trio who were arrested from their homes in Matoh in Meme Division by a vigilante group and then transferred to the Kumba police station, were subsequently moved to the Buea Central prisons where they have since been held without due regards to Law N°2005 of 27 July 2005 bearing on the harmonized Criminal Procedure Code in Cameroon.

Deposing to the affidavit in support of the Writ of Habeas Corpus, GCI’s international interns; Francesco Frigerio from Italy and Tiffany Hu from Canada together with GCI’s Volunteer Chamango Blaise working on the GCI Prisoner’s Rights Defense Project, prayed the Court order the immediate release of Akwo Kevin (21), Itoe Elvis (20) and Momfor Jong David (42) should the State of Cameroon fail to show sufficient cause why the trio should continue in detention.

The application which is registered as Suit No HCF/0042/HB/09 is hinged on Sections 584 and 585 of the Cameroon Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) as read with other relevant provisions of the said CPC and seeks to establish judicial accountability for administrative and judicial malfeasants by elements of law and order in Cameroon.

GCI’s application which is supported by an initial 20 paragraph affidavit, highlights the irregularities and illegality associated with the continuous detention of the suspects and is instituted against; The Commissioner of Government of the Military Tribunal in Buea; and the Superintendent of the Buea Central Prisons as respondents.

According to Akwo Kevin, Itoe Elvis and Momfor Jong David, they were arrested from their homes in Matoh at night by a vigilante group, and were taken to the police station in Kumba where they were detained for one week without any statements recorded from them. They said they were later moved to the Buea prisons and have been in prison since then. They said they were not aware of the reasons for their detention and that no charges have been brought against them or any statements recorded from them nor have they been taken before any Examining Magistrate as required by law.

Global Conscience is worried that the conduct of the arrest and detention of the three suspects failed to observe the formalities and procedures established by law and that it further compounded the constitutional and human rights of the indigent prisoners.

“The law is very clear about what should be done in cases of alleged illegal arrest and detention and we are exploring how to use the law to free captives,” Said Samba Churchill, GCI’s boss. He lamented that the number of persons being illegally held in prisons in Kumba and Buea was disturbing and that regrettably the victims are either to poor to afford fees to pay lawyers or ignorant of their rights under section 584 and 585 of the Criminal Procedure Code. “We are trying to create and build that awareness”, said the human rights activist, while admitting that the task of changing the old mentality of the justice administration is enormous.

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