European Union prepares to assist LGBTI rights groups in Cameroon
The coalition of Cameroon’s 34 LGBTI rights organizations has signed a contract with the Delegation of the European Union in Cameroon to improve the groups’ operations and to cooperate in advocacy for human rights reforms.
By Courtney Stans
Michel Engama, president of the Unity coalition, proposed the partnership to Philippe Van Damme, the ambassador of the European Union in Cameroon.
The outcome of the resulting discussion is a three-year contract under which EU staff will help train leaders of the 34 advocacy groups, recommend organizational improvements, and work together with them in advocating for recognition of LGBTI human rights in Cameroon.
That advocacy will focus on the U.N. Human Rights Council’s next Universal Periodic Review of human rights in Cameroon, scheduled for next November.
Project leaders among the LGBTI groups will be Humanity First Cameroon, AVAF and CAMFAIDS.
According to one of the members of the project’s drafting committee: “This is a wonderful opportunity for local identity-based organizations to improve their structuring but also their empowerment in the search for funding to project themselves in an ambitious way. In addition, LGBTI people will have to be better supported through the new work techniques and performances that the project organizations will develop.”
The contract was signed on Dec. 9. It is expected to take effect in early 2023.
Courtney Stans, the author of this article, is a Cameroonian journalist who writes under a pseudonym. Contact her at info@76crimes.com.
