When
world leaders met in San Francisco at the end of World War 2 to midwife the
birth of the United Nations Organization (UNO), world peace and security was
primordial in all their discussions.
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| LAWYERS DEFENDING SC ACTIVISTS |
Thus when pen was finally put to paper on
the 24th day of October 1945 creating the UN together with the Charter, Article one specifically spelled out
the main purpose of the organization to be, maintain
international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective
measures
for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace,…’
After
the Republic of Cameroun gained independence on the 1st day of
January 1960, she was admitted into the UNO on the 20th of September
1960. By becoming a member of the organization Cameroun was automatically
ratifying the Charter and became bound by its provisions.
On
a critical reading of the Cameroun Constitution of 4/3/1960 -the very first
after independence – we find in its Section 40 thus;
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| BARRISTER AJONG: THE LAW IS CLEAR: |
“ Les traités et accords régulièrement ratifiés ou
approuves ont dès leur publication une autorité supérieure à celle des lois,
sous réserve, pour chaque accord ou traité; de son application par l’autre
partie.”
The 1st
of September 1961 Constitution and the 39 Article Constitution of June 2nd
1972 carefully omitted this provision of superiority of internationally
ratified treaties and laws in Cameroon.
This provision only resurfaced in the 18th
January 1996 Constitution in its Article 45 where it is stated;
“Duly approved or ratified treaties and international
agreements shall, following their publication, override national laws, provided
the other party implements the said treaty or agreement.”
Constitutional law lawyers might need to give us an
inside as to what could have occasioned the omission of this vital provision in
the 1961 and 1972 Constitutions. As a Human Rights Lawyer I can only say the
Government must have been involved into some mischief and most have reasoned
that the absence of a binding international obligation could be a way out.
Could this have had anything to do with the right to
leave? Apparently after Law No. 84/01 of 4/2/1984 reverted the name of the Country
to the one that joined the UNO on the 20/09/1960 might give us a clue to this
deliberate omission. Ostensibly, a process had been steadily completed.
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| MORE LAWYERS JOINING |
The right to leave is a fundamental and
internationally acknowledged Human Right contained in the following Instruments
duly ratified by the Republic of Cameroon;
- Articles 1(2) and 55 of the UN Charter
1945
- Article 1(1) of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) 1966
- Article 1(1) of the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) 1966.
- Article 20 of the African Charter on
Human and Peoples’ Rights 1981
The 1970 Declaration on Principles of International Law
Concerning Friendly Relations and Co-operation among States in accordance with
the Charter of the United Nations in its paragraph 7 of Principle V cautions
States against the disregard of this fundamental Human Right. In any case by
the provisions of Article 5 of the Vienna Declaration, “All Human Rights are
universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated.”
Since the coming into existence of the UNO, the
respect and or non-respect of this Human Right has taken a toll on the budget
and human resources of the organization. The UN has been called into action in
East Timor in 1999, Sudan in respect of South Sudan and Darfur, Kosovo in 1999 just
to mention these few.
This right has however, been peacefully effected in
the case the Confederation of Senegambia (1982- 1989) and Czechoslovakia (January
1 1993) with commendable success.
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| ACTIVISTS DETERMINED |
Most recently the peoples of the Eastern Regions of
Ukraine in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk have had to hold a referendum to
determine their fate and status. In Scotland where I study, they are never shy
of calling a referendum to ascertain their wishes of remaining in the United
Kingdom and this has equally been the case with the people of Quebec in Canada.
There is more legitimacy in governance when you know the people voluntarily make
their choices.
Against the advice of the Cameroon Bar Association,
the government recently promulgated into law a Penal Code fraught with
disregard of Internationally ratified Treaties and Conventions by the same
government.
By my reading of Article 45 of the Constitution, those provisions
which run counter to International provisions are not illegal per se, but
become inapplicable as per Section 45 of the Constitution as read with the preamble
and Article 65 of same. For those of us in the Cameroun Advocates Forum
(Lawyers’ Forum) who think my write up on this particularly acclaimed human
right is politically motivated, my reply is simple.
You are protected by
Article 19 of the Universal declaration of Human Rights. However, let it be
known that, the Human Rights discourse prospers more in advocacy which is
highly protected under Article 15 of law No. 90/059 of 19/12/1990 to Organize
Practice at the Bar.
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| WOMEN ARE FEELING THE PAIN |
After having failed to cause the government not to
promulgate into law what they had internationally engaged to respect, we as
lawyers have a duty under the phase of continuous legal education to identify
those sections that violate this principle and bring it to the knowledge of the
lawyers and Judges. Judgments do not end in Cameroon any Longer.
*AJONG STANISLAUS
Barrister at Law,
Chevening Scholar,
Aberdeen, UK
Disclaimer: All the views expressed in this article are those of
the author and do not represent the position of the Chevening Secretariat or
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)
To be continued with
Sections of the Penal Code that violates the Right to Leave
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