116TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. RES. 358
Calling on the Government of Cameroon
and armed groups to respect the human rights of all Cameroonian citizens, to
end all violence, and to pursue a broad-based dialogue without preconditions to
resolve the conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 7, 2019
Ms. BASS (for herself, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. KIND, Mr. WALBERG, Mr. CASTRO of Texas, Mr. MEADOWS, Ms. OMAR, and Mr. WRIGHT) submitted the following resolution;
which was referred to the Committee on
Foreign Affairs
RESOLUTION
Calling on the Government of Cameroon
and armed groups to respect the human rights of all Cameroonian citizens, to
end all violence, and to pursue a broad-based dialogue without preconditions to
resolve the conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions.
Whereas many Anglophone Cameroonians
have long felt marginalized by official actions and policies of the Government
of Cameroon, including the abolishment of a federal form of government, which
was the constitutional basis under which English-speaking Southern Cameroons
entered into the union, and replacing it with a unitary state dominated by the
Francophone majority;
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Whereas, beginning in late 2016,
protests organized by lawyers, teachers, and students were violently repressed
by the Government of Cameroon, leading to numerous deaths and imprisonments,
including of journalists, teachers, lawyers, and an Anglophone judge on the
country’s Supreme Court;
Whereas the conflict escalated in late
September and early October 2017, when Cameroonian security forces brutally
cracked down on peaceful Anglophone civilian demonstrators, resulting in dozens
of deaths and leaving over 100 injured;
Whereas, in 2017, separatists launched
a campaign to pressure school officials in the Northwest and Southwest
Anglophone regions to go on strike as part of a boycott against the Government
of Cameroon, and reportedly began burning school buildings, threatening
education officials with violence if they did not comply with a boycott, and
kidnapping for ransom children and teachers who defied the boycott;
Whereas numerous human rights monitors
have documented armed separatists killing traditional leaders and targeting
civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, who are perceived to be
supporting or working with the Government of Cameroon, and reports indicate
that armed separatists have killed scores of security force personnel;
Whereas the security forces of the
Government of Cameroon have attacked medical facilities and health workers in
the
Northwest and Southwest regions;
Whereas numerous credible reports from
human rights monitors, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights, have documented the excessive use of
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force by government security forces against Cameroonian
civilians living in the Anglophone regions, including the burning of villages,
the use of live ammunition against protestors, arbitrary arrest and detention,
torture, sexual abuse, and killing of civilians, including women, children, and
the elderly;
Whereas the Department of State has
expressed serious concern over the manner in which the government has used
force to unlawfully restrict the rights to free expression and peaceful protest
that are protected under the
Cameroonian Constitution and international
law;
Whereas the government has charged journalists,
social activists, and members of political opposition parties with
terrorism-related crimes and prosecuted them in military tribunals;
Whereas the Government of Cameroon
arrested opposition leader Maurice Kamto and roughly 150 members of the Cameroon
Renaissance Movement party following peaceful protests on January 26, 2019,
charging them with crimes that could result in the death penalty and handling
their cases at the Military Tribunal even though they are civilians;
Whereas the Government of Cameroon
continued to place bans on Cameroon Renaissance Movement’s attempts to hold
peaceful protests, and civil society reported that security forces interfered
with MRC registration processes in Yaounde´, Douala, and Bafoussam in February
2019;
Whereas the Government of Cameroon has
repeatedly restricted freedoms of expression by shutting down the internet,
harassing and detaining journalists, refusing li-
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00003
censes to independent media, and intensifying political
attacks against the independent press;
Whereas the United Nations Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs stated in April 2019 that more than
530,000 people were internally displaced in areas affected by the Anglophone
conflict;
Whereas the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that more than 32,000
Cameroonian refugees have registered in Nigeria;
Whereas the Department of State has
expressly called on the Government of Cameroon to respect the rights, including
the right to due process, of 47 Cameroonians forcibly returned in January 2018
from Nigerian custody to Cameroonian authorities, many of whom had reportedly
submitted asylum claims in Nigeria; and
Whereas ten of the 47 Cameroonians
forcibly returned from Nigeria now face charges before a military court
punishable by the death penalty, while the other thirty-seven reportedly remain
in detention without charge: Now, therefore, be it
1
Resolved, That
the House of Representatives—
2
(1) strongly condemns the abuses committed in
3
Cameroon’s Anglophone regions by the Government
4
of Cameroon security forces and armed groups,
in5 cluding extrajudicial killings and detentions, the use 6 of force against
nonviolent civilians and protestors,
7
and violations of the freedoms of press,
expression,
8
and assembly;
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(2) affirms that the
United States continues to hold the Government of Cameroon responsible for
upholding the rights of all citizens, regardless of political views or beliefs
or the regions in which they
5
reside, in accordance with Cameroon’s
international
6
obligations and Cameroon’s own Constitution;
7
(3) urges all parties, including political
opposi8 tion groups, to exercise restraint and to ensure that
9
protests remain peaceful;
10
(4) urges the Government of Cameroon to— 11 (A)
initiate broad-based dialogue without
12
preconditions and make a credible, full faith
ef-
13
fort to work with religious and community lead-
14
ers in the Anglophone region to address griev15
ances and seek nonviolent solutions to resolve
16
conflict and constitutional reforms that would
17
protect minority concerns, such as reconsti18
tuting a Federal system;
19
(B) follow through on the initiatives devel-
20
oped to address grievances, including the Com21
mission of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism,
22
the Ministry of Decentralization, and the Na-
23
tional Commission for Disarmament, Demobili-
zation, Reintegration, that currently offer no
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visible evidence of
having played a constructive role in resolving the crisis;
(C) respect the fundamental rights of all
Cameroonian citizens, including political activ-
5
ists and journalists;
6
(D) ensure that any security operations
7
are conducted in accordance with international
8
human rights standards, including efforts to en9
sure security forces only use force under appro-
10
priate circumstances;
11
(E) transparently investigate all allegations
12
of human rights violations committed in the
13
Anglophone regions and take the necessary
14
measures to prevent arbitrary detention, tor-
15
ture, enforced disappearances, deaths in cus-
16
tody, and inhumane prison conditions;
17
(F) promptly charge or release all those
18
detained in the context of the Anglophone cri19
sis, including the Cameroonians forcibly re-
20 turned from
Nigeria, and ensure that any fu21 ture detainees are treated with due process,
in
22
line with Cameroon’s penal code;
23
(G) allow unfettered access to humani-
tarian and health care workers in accordance
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with humanitarian
principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence;
(H) release the leaders and members of the
Cameroon Renaissance Movement party who
5
were arrested following their peaceful protests,
6
and ensure that this party, like others, can
par-
7
ticipate unfettered in upcoming municipal, par-
8
liamentary, and regional elections;
9
(I) release human rights defenders, civil
10
society activists, political prisoners,
journalists,
11
trade unionists, teachers, and any other
citizens
12
who have been arbitrarily arrested and detained
13 without trial or charge;
14
(J) ensure that detainees are treated fairly
15
and humanely, with proper judicial proceedings,
16
including a registry of those detained by the
17
Cameroonian security forces, and with full ac-
18
cess to legal resources; and
19
(K) ensure that Cameroon’s antiterrorism
20
legislation is used only to prosecute offenses
21 that would be considered acts of terrorism
22
under international legal standards, and cease
23
to use this legislation to sanction activities
that
are protected by national and international
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guarantees of
freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association with others; and
(5) urges the separatist groups to—
(A) engage with Cameroonian government
5
officials, as well as civil society and
religious
6
leaders, in a broad-based dialogue without pre7
conditions to peacefully express grievances and
8
credibly engage in nonviolent efforts to resolve
9
the conflict;
10
(B) immediately stop committing human
11
rights abuses, including killings of civilians,
use
12
of child soldiers, torture, kidnapping, and
extor-
13
tion;
14
(C) end the school boycott immediately and
15
cease attacks on schools, teachers, and edu16
cation officials, and allow for the safe return of 17 all students to class;
18
(D) end incitement to violence and hate
19
speech on the part of the diaspora; and
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(E) immediately release all civilians ille21
gally detained or kidnapped in the Anglophone
22 Northwest and Southwest
regions.
Æ
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