"Humanity comes under threat when children are attacked"
FiLiA stands in Solidarity with our Cameroonian Sisters and joins their call for the Cameroon government to stop these killings and for Ceasefire, Justice, Peace, dialogue and Meaningful Participation.
Statement from CAWOPEM, Cameroon Women's Peace Movement:
CAMEROON WOMEN’S PEACE MOVEMENT (CAWOPEM) CONDEMNS THE KILLINGS OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN KUMBA SOUTH WEST REGION OF CAMEROON
We condemn with our last energy the umpteen horrendous killing of 8 children in Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy Kumba. On this black Saturday October 24, 2020, unidentified men invaded the children in their school with guns and machetes. 8 children where fatally shot while several others are seriously wounded and fighting for their lives in different hospital facilities within the region.
“Humanity comes under threat when children are attacked”
Cameroon women have watched with bewilderment and consternation the ongoing butchery on human beings particularly women, girls and children for the past four years and counting. Today again, children of the Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy Kumba committed the combined sin and offence of going to school and acquire education which they have been told is the key and a development multiplier. 8 of them met their demises while several others are fighting for their lives in hospitals.
With the seeming consensus for children to resume schools on October 5, 2020 we thought the protagonists of this senseless war have come to their senses to genuinely silence their guns and give peace a chance. While our hearts go out to our sisters who are in utter consternation and shattered to the core;
We hereby reiterate our call for Ceasefire, Justice, Peace, dialogue and Meaningful Participation of October 1, 2020, request that, all actors must be held accountable by the international community and fulfill their commitments;
Remind the perpetrators of these atrocities that schools and students are civilian objects and inviolable in times of war;
We call on all authorities to use their good office to assist Cameroon women to mobilize against these human atrocities and call on the Cameroon government to take actions and stop these killings.
CAMEROON, OCTOBER 24 2020
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Cameroon Women’s Call for Ceasefire, Justice, Peace ,
Dialogue and Meaningful Participation
WE, the undersigned Cameroon Women’s Rights Groups, WHRDs, Networks, Activists and Individuals, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on women, peace and security unanimously adopted on the 31st of October 2000 with its main pillars being: PREVENTION, PROTECTION, PARTICIPATION, RELIEF/RECOVERY, and FINANCING;
MINDFUL of ongoing armed conflicts in Cameroon from boko haram violent extremism and the anglophone crisis, exacerbated by worsening humanitarian conditions and the outbreak of the COVID-19 global health pandemic, of untold human rights violations inflicted on citizens particularly women and girls, noting that, despite these atrocities the warring parties: the Cameroon government and the Non-state Armed Groups (NSAGs), have refused to heed to multiple calls for ceasefire especially from women who bear the brunt of crises;
MINDFUL FURTHER of Cameroon state’s commitments to the Geneva Convention relating to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, of 1949 and the Additional Protocols of 1977, the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Declaration on Violence Against Women (Vienna Declaration), the Beijing Platform of Action, the BPFA + 25, and its Outcome Document, the UNSCR 1325 (2000) on women, peace and security and related resolutions particularly resolution 1888 (2000) to reduce sexual violence in conflicts and end rape as a weapon of war, the Cameroon NAP for the implementation of 1325 (2018-2020), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development; the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (The Maputo protocol), the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention), the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, the African Union Aspiration 2063, the “Silencing the Guns in Africa by 2020” initiative, the Safe Schools
Declaration and Guidelines, and other commitments;
RECALLING our numerous calls for peace and ceasefire initiatives including the submission of a ceasefire and dialogue continuation strategies to the Prime Minister, Head of Government during the pre-major National Dialogue Consultations, the organisation of candle light vigil and lamentation campaigns to rebut ongoing conflicts, the organisation of social media sensitization on silencing the guns, the presentation of women’s human rights situation in Cameroon at the ACHPR (65th Ordinary Session) and UNHR Special Procedure (43rd session) and others including the call by the UNSG on the need for ceasefire and national solidarity to fight against the COVID-19 global health pandemic;
RECALLING FURTHER that the continuation of hostilities disproportionately affect women and children particularly the girl child, exposing them to extreme violence and brutality from both the Defense and Security Forces (DSF) and Nonstate Armed Groups (NSAG), to all forms of SGBV including target butchery of women and girls, some carrying babies, the use of girls as suicide bombers and the desecration of their body parts, rape, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, trafficking, forced marriage, kidnapping, abduction, psychosocial and mental health concerns and other harmful practices. That continued hostilities have also led to attacks on health facilities, health personnel and humanitarian workers, to extended administrative measures and ghost towns by the government and Nonstate Armed Groups (NSAG) respectively restraining movement of people and goods, that these restrictive measure amount to the shrinking space phenomenon and cause untold hardship to citizens including inability of women in child labour to access health facilities during childbirth leading to a surge in maternal and neonatal deaths, the inability of women and girls to access sexual and reproductive health services (SRHS) and other facilities;
CONSIDERING that the ongoing conflicts have deprived our children of education for four years and counting, that the destruction of property including schools and health facilities, have led to a surge in adolescent girl pregnancy, child and forced marriages as parents in raw desperation prefer to marry their daughters off to one stranger and spare her being raped by many men, the appalling living conditions of women and children particularly those in refugee camps in neighboring Nigeria, those internally displaced in bushes in the restive regions and slums of the metropolitan towns like Yaoundé and Douala, that grassroot women whose principal livelihood activity is farming are raped on all fronts on their way to the farm and their possessions seized, that the outbreak of the COVID-19 global health pandemic has exacerbated these hardship and the shrinking civic space phenomenon with growing consequences on women including surges in domestic violence, economic dependence, all factors that expose women and girls to GBV;
CONSIDERING FURTHER that despite the consequences of the present socio-political situation of Cameroon on women, they have been systematically and deliberately excluded or underrepresented in all peace and humanitarian initiatives, including the National Committee on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (NCDDR), the Nation Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, the Major National Dialogue (MND), the emergency humanitarian assistance plans, the ongoing Presidential Plan for Reconstruction and Development (PPRD) to reduce the effects of the crisis on populations of the North and South-West Regions and others;
RECOGNISING that peace and security are essential for the achievement of sustainable development, and are interconnected and vital to the future of women, that the ongoing conflicts, shrinking civic space and other rollbacks grievously undermine the milestones achieved by Cameroon in sustaining peace, gender equality and empowerment of women;
RECOGNISING FURTHER the Women, Peace and Security agenda, which recognizes the disproportionate impact of armed conflict on women, the occurrence of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) during armed conflict, and emphasizes the importance of gender perspectives in peace negotiations, humanitarian planning, peacekeeping operations, and post-conflict peacebuilding and governance, women’s equal, full and effective participation at all stages of peace processes given their necessary role in the prevention and resolution of conflict, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, as embodied in UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 (2000), 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013) 2242 (2015), 2467 (2019) and 2493 (2019);
ACKNOWLEDGING the recent sentencing to a minimal 10 years jail term of some military officers found guilty of killing women with babies on their backs in the Far North region of Cameroon. Does this minimal jail sentence not amount to Cameroon government’s check-the-box, façade and sham concessions in relation to human rights violations particularly relating to ongoing crises plaguing the country?
Cameroon Women’s Rights Groups, Networks, Activists and Individuals in their multitude and miscellany are alarmed about the humanitarian crisis and ongoing armed conflicts. We, therefore:
CALL on the warring parties to immediately stop the fighting and engage in inclusive, meaningful and lasting ceasefire, to publicly commit themselves to a genuine process towards ending the civil conflict, killings, gender-based violence and building sustainable, inclusive, lasting and just peace and to heed to the call by UNSG on the need for ceasefire and national solidarity to fight against the COVID-19 global health pandemic. To scrupulously observe the Safe Schools Declaration Guidelines for Protecting Schools from Attacks and Military use during Armed Conflicts.
CALL on the inclusion of the resourcefulness of Cameroon women, human rights experts, health workers, economists, politicians and civil society leaders in the peace process and that, peace builders must ensure a representative peace process with greater women political participation and women’s empowerment.
URGE that, in every humanitarian and security matter, gender provisions be included. Ensure that women and civil society are included in all security related commitments because, when women and civil society monitor the implementation or violations of agreement it increases its credibility.
ENCOURAGE the inclusion of the women, peace and security agenda in policies and programmes for the protection of women and girls from sexual and gender-based violence before, during and after armed conflict, and the creation of greater and wider spaces for participation in peacebuilding and post-reconstruction processes, the legitimate participation of women in all phases of the peace process, from ongoing consultations to the reconstruction and all phases of building sustainable peace in Cameroon.
CALL on the Cameroon government and all development partners to build the capacity of women as peace builders either as mediators, negotiators and/ or first responders at the regional, national and local levels, include women in relevant teams to monitor, advise and ensure adequate response through gender analysis and engage men and boys within the broader women, peace and security agenda.
URGE Cameroon as a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the Beijing platform, and all peace negotiators, to make provisions especially for the needs of women and girls during DDR, repatriation, resettlement and for the rehabilitation and implementation of a future peace agreement.
ENCOURAGE all stakeholders to adopt measures to respect the human rights of women and girls as they relate to all the treaties and instruments cited in this document.
CALL on all stakeholders to genuinely commit to the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security particularly the PREVENTION, PROTECTION, PARTICIPATION, RELIEF/RECOVERY, and FINANCING pillars.
DEMAND the respect for humanitarian law and accountability measures by all parties. This must include to hold the international community accountable, the Cameroon government and all other stakeholders who signed UNSCR 1325 and have shown commitment.
DEMAND that the Government and Development Partners commit to monitor and ensure the elaboration of an inclusive National Action Plan on the UNSCR 1325, which shall be vulgarized to all citizens especially women and girls. The appropriation of this Resolution and its implementation serves in early warning and PREVENTION.
REQUEST that, all actors must be held accountable by the international community and fulfill their commitment towards these treaties, that the Permanent Representatives to the United Nations on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Resolution 1325 (2000) to consider this call as the “Nuremberg moment” from Cameroon women for the trial of all perpetrators and protagonists of human rights violations of women, especially target killings and SGBV.
WE stand for Justice to all, Ceasefire, Inclusive Dialogue, Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Peace and Sustainable Development
Adopted on the First Day of October in the Year Two Thousand and Twenty (2020) in Cameroon by the Cameroon Women's Peace Movement (CAWOPEM)
