CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Adoption is a legal act where a child becomes affiliated to a parent to whom he/she is not biologically related. This practice is well known and done in certain high income countries practice, whereas only 1.2% of couples had already adopted a child, 27.2% had the desire to adopt a child. The acceptance of adoption does not depend only on the level of education but also on the socio-economic level. In addition, social beliefs constitute a non-negligible influence on attitude towards adoption. In our milieu, where the socio-economic level does not permit many couples to have access to ART, how then does the patient regard child adoption.^[1]

After the Second World War there was a dramatic increase in adoption the world over. The problem of finding decent homes and responsible tutelage for the countless orphans left by the war brought to the foreground the necessity of devising a suitable legal institution. For most countries in Europe the answer was sought in the hitherto little-used institution of adoption.^[2] In Cameroon, adoption has been widely practiced before and after independence following customs and traditions of the different communities.

Child abandonment is a growing phenomenon in Cameroon. The problem is the result of uncontrolled sex among adolescents, parental irresponsibility and poverty against a backdrop of deteriorating ancestral ties of solidarity, which, in recent times, has worsened with the impact of HIV/AIDS and the problem of child trafficking and slavery. Nearly 300,000 orphans and vulnerable children are at risk of finding themselves without support or a family.^[3] This is one of the concerns of the 1996 constitution of Cameroon which provides in its preamble that, everyone has the right to a family.^[4]

As a result of the growing number of children in Cameroon without parents or a family, two types of alternative care are currently provided; interim alternative care and permanent alternative care. Interim care usually applies to an emergency situation in which a child’s physical safety calls for an immediate response. In such cases, the departmental delegate for social affairs, acting on a report by the head of a shelter for children in distress or any other person concerned, places the child in such a facility on an interim basis. The centre replaces the parents of the child until the parents are found.

Adoption is the permanent form of alternative care in Cameroon. Basically, it seeks to address the problem of a person or family unable to have children, and that of a child with no parents. Adoption is currently governed by a raft of laws, which draw on both national and international legal instruments. It exists in two forms: simple adoption (by mutual consent) and full adoption. In order to harmonize and modernize the legal framework, Cameroon has made adoption one of the main points to be included in the preliminary draft code on the protection of children, which aims to regulate both domestic and international adoption.^[5]

 Statement of the problem

Adoption seeks to create an artificial legal relationship where there was perhaps no biological or natural relationship previously existing. The paramount duty of the Court is to ascertain the interest of the adoptee. In granting adoption, as such the court could undertake any relevant inquiry to ascertain this paramount interest before granting the adoption.^[6]

Cameroon operates a bi-jural legal system owing to its colonial past. That is, the Common Law Legal System (derived from Great Britain) and the Civil Law Legal System (derived from France). The Common Law system operates in Former Southern Cameroon on the one part, while the Civil Law system operates in the regions of Former Western Cameroon (French speaking regions) on the other part.

In Anglophone Cameroon, the courts have always had the problem of interpretation of Sections 10 of the Southern Cameroons High Court Law, as to the use of post 1900 English Statute with regards to the issue of adoption as evident in the Bernard Fonlon’s Case.^[7] This is due to the fact that Cameroon lacks a stringent local legislation on the subject. This gives room for complex issues with regards to adoption in Cameroon and anglophone Cameroon in particular. This work therefore seeks to investigate into the legal regime that is put in place to address issues of adoption within the Common Law courts of Anglophone Cameroon.

Research Questions

• Main Research Question

To what extent are legal instruments effective in regulating adoption of children in Anglophone Cameroon?

• Specific Research Questions

• What is the legal and institutional framework governing adoption in Anglophone Cameroon?
• What is the procedure used for the adoption of children in Anglophone Cameroon?
• What are the challenges faced in the adoption of children in Anglophone Cameroon?

Objectives of the Study

• Main Objective

To examine the legal framework for the adoption of children in Cameroon

• Specific Objectives

• To examine the legal and institutional framework governing adoption in Anglophone Cameroon.
• To examine the procedure used in the adoption of children in Anglophone Cameroon.
• To discuss challenges faced in the adoption of children in Anglophone Cameroon.

[1] Nguefack, C.T., et al. (2014) Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Infertile Women on Child Adoption in Douala (Cameroon). Open Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 4, p. 1066 at http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojog.2014.416146

[2] Emilio S. Binavince, (1966), “Adoption and the Law of Descent and Distribution A Comparative Study and a Proposal for Model Legislation” 51 Cornell L. Rev. p. 152 at: htt://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/clr/vol51/iss2/2 (accessed on the 21^st of March 2022)

[3] Initial Report on the Implementation of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, p. 30

[4] See Law No. 96-06 of 18 January 1996 to amend the Constitution of 2 June 1972

[5] Initial Report on the Implementation of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, p. 31

[6] Wirngo Alexanda Suiy, THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK OF ADOPTION IN CAMEROON (Part One: In the French Speaking Regions of Cameroon) at https://www.linkedin.com (accessed on the 31^st of March 2022)

[7] Appeal No. BCA/2/75 (unreported).