As delivered by Huda Ibrahim
30th Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group
Geneva, May 16, 2018
The United States welcomes the Cameroonian delegation and appreciates its active participation in this important process.
We remain concerned by credible allegations of human rights violations and abuses by security forces. We call on the government to credibly investigate these allegations and hold those responsible to account. We are also concerned by reports of harassment and intimidation of youth, civil society, journalists, and opposition leaders, particularly in the Northwest and Southwest Regions, as well as restrictions on the rights of peaceful assembly and freedoms of association and expression.
We call on the government to respect the human rights of everyone, including the 47 Cameroonians forcibly returned from Nigerian custody to Cameroonian authorities in January. We expect the government of Cameroon to afford all individuals detained all of the rights and protections provided under domestic and international law.
We continue to closely monitor the violence and discrimination targeting vulnerable groups, including LGBTI persons and LGBTI civil society leaders.
We recommend that the government:
- Acknowledge and investigate credible allegations of human rights violations and abuses, and hold those responsible to account.
- Respect the rights of peaceful assembly, and freedoms of association and expression, including when exercised online, and afford all of those detained all the rights enshrined in Cameroon’s constitution and under international law.
- Decriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations and immediately cease targeted discrimination and violence against LGBTI persons.