Women Leaders: LBQ activists gather to demand change in Cameroon

By Courtney Stans

Femmes Leaders (Women Leaders), an LBQ movement in Cameroon, is a gathering of lesbian, bisexual and queer leaders from all over the country. Launched several years ago, this movement allows LBQ women to defend their rights and assert themselves on the national and international level as they fight against violence, discrimination and human rights abuses in Cameroonian society.

Logo of Femmes Leaders, with the motto “Ensemble nous pouvons” (Together we can).

About 20 members of Women Leaders met Oct. 7-8 in Yaoundé to learn ways to improve their effectiveness as human rights defenders and to strengthen their personal security while doing that work. The meeting was facilitated by Jean Jacques Dissoke, the advocacy officer at the LGBTI organization Alternatives Cameroon.

“This meeting is a godsend for our daily work, where we are regularly exposed to violence and all forms of difficulties on a personal and professional level. Improving our capacities will allow us to work more effectively and to protect ourselves and our beneficiaries better,” said one member of Women Leaders.

The training session outlined existing programs at the national, regional and international levels that can respond when human rights are threatened.

Among those are the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which have limited ability to protect citizens against human rights abuses. The ACHPR, for example, can only make non-binding recommendations to its 54 member states. Similarly, only a handful of African nations have accepted the jurisdiction of the African Court.

Participants at the meeting resolved to work to persuade Cameroon to sign the declaration of commitment to the African Court and to participate in the next Universal Periodic Review of Cameroon’s human rights policies, organized every three years by the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Courtney Stans, the author of this article, is a Cameroonian journalist who writes under a pseudonym. Contact her at info@76crimes.com.