- Law No. 2011/024 of 14 December 2011 r on the fight against trafficking and trading
in persons, abrogating Law No. 2005/015 of 29 December 2005, which broadens the
scope of the fight against trafficking in all categories of victims;
- Decree No. 268/2012 of 11 June 2012 to organise the Ministry of Basic Education
(MINEDUB) which has a provision on the supervision and follow-up of activities of
Governments and Children’s Parliament;
- Decree No. 2013/031 of 13 February 2013 on the organisation and functioning of the
National Civil Status Bureau (BUNEC);
- Order No. 012/CAB/PM of 31 January 2013 on the set-up, organisation and
functioning of the Committee for the coordination and follow-up of strategies to fight
against trafficking in human organs and ritual crimes;
- Order No. 087/PM of 27 August 2014 to set up the Inter-sector Committee for the
fight against child labour.
Generally, it should be noted that Cameroon has taken some significant actions in support
of child protection. These include mainly the expansion of the chain of Government
stakeholders in this area.
However, implementing recommendations in the field of legislation in favour of the child
still faces the following challenges:
- lukewarm application of many laws governing children’s rights in Cameroon;
- lack of understanding on the need for a specific legal instrument for the child and/or
family.
The ongoing drafting of training modules in Police, Gendarmerie and Magistracy schools,
as well as the training sessions usually organized for the judiciary staff members on the
Rights of the Child, will all help to facilitate better application of instruments on child
protection.
b) Institutional Framework
The Ministries of: Basic Education, Secondary Education, Employment and Vocational
Training, Public Health, Justice, Youth and Civic Education, Sports and Physical
Education, Labour and Social Security, Social Affairs and Women Empowerment and the
Family are the main government structures that handle children's issues. They work
closely with the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms (NCHRF), CSOs
that deal with children’s issues, United Nations System and other Technical and Financial
Partners.
In order to effectively coordinate the different actions in support of children, an interministerial committee was thus formed, in 2011, to follow up the implementation of the
recommendations/decisions of treaties monitoring bodies and this Committee is housed in
the Prime Minister's Office.
In addition, the Cameroonian Government promulgated some instruments on
decentralization, among others, which grant local authorities powers, human and financial
resources to protect and support vulnerable children.
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