Judicial Independence and Transitional Justice in Cameroon: A Pathway to Sustainable Peace in the ongoing Anglophone Crisis
Posted: 10 May, 2023 Filed under: Bobuin Jr Valery Gemandze Oben, Uncategorized | Tags: African Union’s Transitional Justice Policy, Anglophone crisis, Cameroon, conflict, constitutional enactment, constitutionalism, corruption, extrajudicial killings, inadequate resources, independence, judicial independence, OHCHR, orced disappearances, political interference, reconciliation, socio-economic transformation, sustainable peace, transformative constitutionalism, Transitional Justice Leave a comment
Author: Bobuin Jr Valery Gemandze Oben
Advocacy Specialist, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation
Introduction
Since 2017 Cameroon has been faced with a separatist insurrection widely referred to as—the Anglophone crisis. It has had devastating effects on the country, and over its bloody course, has been considered the most neglected conflict in the world, with thousands of lives lost and about a million others displaced. Transitional justice tools can provide a pathway for addressing the underlying causes of the conflict and promoting reconciliation and sustainable peace. The OHCHR defines it as, ‘‘the full range of processes and mechanisms associated with a society’s attempt to come to terms with a legacy of large-scale past conflict, repression, violations and abuses, in order to ensure accountability, serve justice and achieve reconciliation’’. While in the African context, the African Union’s Transitional Justice Policy (AUTJP) defines it as ‘‘the various (formal and traditional or non-formal) policy measures and institutional mechanisms that societies, through an inclusive consultative process, adopt in order to overcome past violations, divisions and inequalities and to create conditions for both security and democratic and socio-economic transformation’’. However, as would be subsequently seen, the success of these measures is largely dependent on the independence of the judiciary.
Transitional Justice and Women in Africa: How the Material Turn is still difficult to be seen?
Posted: 28 November, 2022 Filed under: Cristiano d'Orsi | Tags: Africa, African countries, community courts, compensatory assistance, crime against humanity, customary law, domestic instruments, domestic level, gender-based violence, Maputo Protocol, military tribunals, popular culture, rape culture, sexual violence, traditional justice systems, Transitional Justice, violations, violence, violent crime, women, women’s rights Leave a comment
Author: Cristiano d’Orsi
Research Fellow and Lecturer at the South African Research Chair in International Law (SARCIL), University of Johannesburg
As envisaged in the 2003 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol), transitional processes should recognize the gendered nature of conflicts in which women are affected disproportionately, both directly and indirectly, by violence (see, for example, Article 10 –Right to Peace- and Article 11 –Protection of Women in Armed Conflicts-).[1] However, gender concerns in Africa have been rarely incorporated into Transnational Justice (TJ) through mainstreaming gender as a crosscutting issue. The nature of the violations to which women are usually subjected on the continent, and the impact of such violations on them, means that the issue of women and TJ should be treated on its own. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go to comply with this measure. Normally, states emerging from conflicts or authoritarian repression should ensure women’s representation and participation at all stages of TJ processes by writing women’s participation into peace agreements and TJ laws and policies. Nevertheless, seldom has this been the case in Africa.
AfricLaw 