-
the bodies set up to manage the refugee status have not gone operational
the non-existence of regional and local branches of refugee management bodies;
the poor appropriation by local communities of the refugee problem;
the inadequate material, financial and humanitarian resources to address the evergrowing influx of Nigerian and Central African refugees;
the inadequate mastery by some public stakeholders of refugee rights protection
standards.
In order to overcome the above mentioned difficulties, it is recommended that the process
of transferring the roles of determining the status of refugees from the HCR to the
Government be completed, make the refugee management bodies go operational, set up
regional and local branches of these bodies by giving them appropriate running budget
allocations.
d) Children of Imprisoned Mothers (Art. )
Since Cameroon presented its report in 2011, there has not been any special law relating
to palliative sentences to the imprisonment of mothers with their children. However, this
issue remains a major concern for the State of Cameroon which would like to draw from
the experiences of other African States on the matter. In the meantime, some Civil
Society stakeholders have distinguished themselves in caring for children born to
imprisoned mothers. Such is the case with the Relais Parents-Enfants Association, the
NGO Mère-Enfant, Justice and Peace Commissions, that organize specific actions
targeting children whose mothers are in prison, especially in preparing for the school year
(school kits, various textbooks and manuals), and in organizing end-of-year festivities
(Christmas Tree Ceremony with the handing over of presents to children).
Actions were equally geared towards other categories of vulnerable children, namely,
street children. In this regard, the following should be noted:
- pursuing the implementation of the project to fight against the street children
phenomenon;
- the setting up of two pilot regional multi-sector mobile brigades for the fight against the
street children phenomenon in Yaounde and Douala;
- the annual capacity building campaigns in favour of social workers in providing care to
street children;
- the organization of home-coming actions for 855 former street children; of which 585
reintegrated the classical educational system and received educational support;
- the systematic going back to school of children placed in foster institutions and the
social and vocational training in view of greater empowerment;
- the strengthening of the inter-sector coordination mechanism for the fight against the
street children phenomenon;
- the implementation of the pre-marital, matrimonial and family education programme
that takes into consideration the prevention of the street children phenomenon;
- the validation of the handbook on community schools as a didactic tool intended for
teachers on the ground;
- the institutional placement of street children in reception and rehabilitation centres for
minors.
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