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Child Rights

What is the State of Child Rights in Cameroon?

Although Cameroon has made some efforts to protect the welfare and rights of its children, such as ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993, there are still many instances of rights abuses and injustices. The most common violations in Cameroon are child labor, child trafficking, and lack of birth certificates. These violations impact children in many ways, it affects their ability to go to and excel at school, and it also affects their health and their self esteem.

The law generally protects children from exploitation in the workplace and specifies penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment for infringement; however, child labor remained a problem. The law sets a minimum age of 14 for child employment, which is inconsistent with the age for completing educational requirements. Child labor exists chiefly in urban areas and in the informal sector such as street vending, agricultural work, and domestic service. Parents view child labor as both a tradition and a rite of passage. Relatives often employ rural youth, especially girls, as domestic helpers, and these jobs seldom allowed time for the children to attend school. In rural areas, many children begin work at an early age on family farms.

The law in Cameroon criminalizes child trafficking. However, a 2000 International Labor Organization study conducted in Yaounde, Douala, and Bamenda, reported that trafficking accounted for 84% of child laborers in those three cities. In four out of 10 cases, the child was a foreigner transported to the country for labor. Women and children traditionally have faced the greatest risk of trafficking and have been trafficked most often for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced labor. Girls are typically internally trafficked from the Adamawa, North, Far North, and Northwest provinces to Douala and Yaounde to work as domestic servants, street vendors, or prostitutes.

In Cameroon, although everyone has the right to a birth certificate, many children do not possess one which impedes their ability to complete school since birth certificates are required for exam registration in both primary and secondary school.

Raising awareness about Child Rights through sports

What is IDF’s Experience in the Domain of Child Rights?

With over 785,000 children in the north west region, many of IDF’s beneficiaries are children.  IDF has been active in the fight for Children’s Rights for over a decade.  IDF has carried out research and written reports on these issues to raise awareness and to develop projects which will have significant impacts.  After carrying out research on the causes and impacts of children not having birth certificates in the region, IDF developed a project which  helped obtain 750 late birth certificates to primary school children and 45 single adolescent mothers. IDF is also active in the fight against child trafficking and labor.

IDF’s projects in this area include:

To download a PDF booklet about IDF’s work in this area: Child Rights booklet

IDF’s help in getting children in the North West Region birth certificates was lauded by many including traditional leaders.  The secretary general of the Bamunkumbit Traditional Council who is the Representative of the Fon  said:

“We have no civil status registration centres in Bamunkumbit, that is why most of the children are without birth certificates. It was a good initiative. This programme has been of much help especially to the children without parents (orphans).”