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An Empirical Study of Human Trafficking Law in Cameroon: Victims Rarely Seek Justice and Traffickers Are Not Held Liable

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date01 August 2017
Pages430-441
Date01 August 2017
DOI10.3366/ajicl.2017.0203
INTRODUCTION

Human trafficking is widespread in Cameroon which is a source, transit and destination point for internationally trafficked people.1 Human trafficking is also widespread within Cameroon.2 The Minister of Social Affairs Cathérine Bakang Mbock, who is primarily responsible for combating human trafficking, should increase efforts to prosecute and convict trafficking offenders. The 2015 Global Slavery Index estimates that there are 79,900 people who are held in modern slavery in Cameroon.3 The Cameroon Penal Code4 was implemented on 12 November 1965, under which human trafficking was only penalised as an international crime.5 In 2005, Cameroon's National Assembly and President Paul Biya enacted an Anti-Child Trafficking law,6 in cooperation with the International Labour Organisation which took effect in December 2005. In December 2011, Cameroon passed comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation, repealing the 2005 anti-trafficking law that criminalised the trafficking of children but not adults.7 However, despite this legislation, traffickers are rarely convicted or prosecuted. Trafficking is a lucrative business and it reported that one government official attempting to address the issue received threats from traffickers and required police protection.8 Human trafficking is prosecuted under kidnapping9 or aggravated kidnapping10 and yet still many victims choose to settle the matter out of court with non-governmental organisations.

Women and children have traditionally faced the greatest risks of trafficking. Children are internally trafficked in Cameroon from the Adamawa Region, North Region, Far North Region and Northwest Region to Douala or Yaoundé to work as domestic servants, street vendors or prostitutes.11 In 2011, the US Department of Labor's Bureau of International Afairs reported that trafficking accounted for 36 per cent of an estimated 1,749,049 child labourers between the ages of five and 14.12 In Cameroon, child labour is used primarily in plantation agriculture, as well as in manufacturing, services and other sectors.13 In 2012, while interning for Aide Légale Libre for Cameroon for two months I conducted 14 semi-structured interviews in tandem with non-governmental agencies that provide support to human trafficking victims. I documented the obstacles for the human trafficking victims and the evidence presented in this paper comes from observations and interviews. The information I gathered was met with trust and sadness in reliving their stories. The problems the human trafficking victims have encountered, such as the difficulties of getting more than a primary education, which led to human trafficking reinforces the notion that Cameroon could do more to combat human trafficking.

Human rights strategies can help address the root causes by strengthening Cameroon's economic and social rights. Cameroon's culturally accepted norms and non-compulsory access to secondary education allows human trafficking to continue to thrive.14 Many of the victims of human trafficking that I interviewed were orphans, or were survived by one parent, or lived with extended family. The Ministry of Social Affairs reports that children of some large rural families are ‘loaned’ to work as domestic servants, vendors, prostitutes or babysitters in urban areas in exchange for monetary compensation.15 Cameroon's laws and regulations allows child labour to thrive. The Labour Code sets the minimum age for work at 14.16 Children are required to attend school until aged 12; Cameroon mandates compulsory primary education.17 Therefore, children aged 12 to 14 are vulnerable to the worst forms of child labour as they are not required to be in school and are below the minimum age for work.18 Hila Shamir suggests shifting the focus away from individual harms to the power disparities between victims and traffickers and the economic and social conditions that make individuals vulnerable to trafficking.19

This article proceeds in three parts. Section II discusses an intra-regional human trafficking case between neighbouring countries, Cameroon and Gabon, and ways to seek justice in Cameroon's judiciary system, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. Section III discusses the prosecution of traffickers under the crimes of kidnapping and aggravated kidnapping, which proves Cameroon's judiciary system is not prosecuting traffickers under Law No. 2011/024 Relating to the Fight Against Trafficking in Persons and Slavery. Finally, in Section IV, I discuss the ways traffickers take advantage of the victims and the economic and social issues that make victims vulnerable. Section III exposes the multifaceted issues that allow human trafficking to flourish in Cameroon.

 VICTIM OF INTERNATIONAL TRAFFICKING

In July 1998, Cameroon signed the Rome Statute establishing the ICC. Cameroon has not ratified the statute, thereby agreeing to accept the ICC's jurisdiction over the crimes listed in the Rome Statute. The government of the country that has not met the preconditions to the exercise of jurisdiction may make a declaration under Article 12(3) thereby accepting the exercise of jurisdiction by the Court with respect to the crime in question. In practice, Cameroon would voluntarily give the ICC jurisdiction in a given case, which would be a difficult task to implement.

The Rome Statute has a special reference to trafficking in persons and is defined under crimes against humanity. The ICC may prosecute any case of crimes against humanity irrespective of the amount of time passed since the crime or the act of crime was committed. This is in accordance with Article 29, which states that ‘the crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court shall not be subject to any statute of limitations.’ Article 24 of the Rome Statute recognises the principle of non-reactivity ratione personae, which recognises ‘no person shall be criminally responsible under this Statute for conduct prior to the entry into force of the Statute.’

In July 2006, Cameroon signed the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (the African Charter) on the establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, which Cameroon recently ratified in August 2015. The African Charter has been heavily criticised for the courts' lack of clarity in the legal obligations it demands as well as a lack of implementation or enforcement mechanisms.20 The Charter cannot force a member state to follow its recommendations, which depend on the goodwill of the member state; the African Court can merely send letters reminding...

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