Azore Opio
22 December 2008
Participants at a one-day seminar-workshop in Limbe on Friday, December 19, observed that in spite of the new Criminal Procedure Code, CPC, the police and some magistrates have a way of cutting corners with it.
Despite the explicit clause that guarantees free bail, the lawyers said the police have a cunning way of circumventing the law and going out of their way to dupe suspects of money behind their lawyers.
In this vein, a Limbe-based NGO, Centre d'Animation des Jeunes pour l'Appui au Developpment, CAJAD*, organised a workshop to enable lawyers to use human rights knowledge to defend their clients.
A paper presented at the workshop by the Southwest Regional Secretary of the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms, NCHRF, Christopher Tambe Tiku, dwelt on seven core international treaties ratified by, or which the State of Cameroon expressed its consent to become party to (accession) which lawyers can cite in defence of clients.
Amongst the most significant core treaties that Tambe cited are: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights including its Optional Protocols I and II; Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment, [and Optional Protocol] Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women [and Optional Protocol] and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.
The NCHRF Secretary said, for example, that the Optional Protocol on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights allows individuals to bring their complaints before the Human Rights Committee after exhausting all domestic remedies.
He said the Optional Protocol also allows states to bring up reports on human rights violations perpetrated by other states.Tambe said, therefore, that lawyers after mastering the treaties could make good use of the core treaties ratified by the State of Cameroon to defend their clients.
"This would take care of the police and magistrates, some of whom have assumed the powers of lawyers," he added.
*CAJAD aims to promote justice and the respect of human dignity by contributing in the protection and defence of human rights and the fight against poverty and unemployment.
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