BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

In  Cameroon early marriage still lingers on especially in patriarchal societies, which is characterized by social norms dominance that coerce their daughters or young women to succumb to the pressure of early marriage as a means to prove their worth within their household. This affects the empowerment of such young women as they are deprived of schooling as a verible engine for development and empowerment.[1]

Early marriage is associated with childbearing and higher fertility rate of which it is detrimental as well, whereby early marriages limits female schooling opportunities as girls are taken out of school in order to dedicate their time to domestic, marital and maternal duties.

Also, these young women have little decision making power in the household with a greater likelihood of suffering domestic violence which was observed by the United Nation’s Population Fund (UNFPA).

The population of Cameroon is now made up of more than 230 ethnic groups defined on the basis of dialect and belonging to three broad cultural communities: – the Bantus of the South, Littoral, South-West, Centre and East provinces; – the semi-Bantus of the West and North-West provincesthe Sudanese of the province of Adamaoua and the North and Far North provinces. The pygmies, who are not included in this broad classification, live in the Centre, South and East provinces. Far from being a source of conflict and divisiveness, this ethnic diversity is regarded by government and people as mutually enriching.

 The population of Cameroon is estimated to number 13,650,000 (projections based on the general census of 1987) and the economy is mainly based on the primary sector. Almost 75 per cent of the economically active population is employed in agriculture, in the broad sense of the term. Agriculture more or less enables the country to feed itself, generates about one third of hard-currency earnings and 15 per cent of government revenue, and contributes 24 per cent to the GDP. The tertiary sector employs 20 per cent of the active population, while the industrial sector is still in the embryonic stage. Many women find employment in the informal sector.  Cameroon became a unitary State. Under the Constitution of 18 January 1996, Cameroon is a democratic decentralized unitary State with a semi-presidential form of government. There is separation of the executive, legislative and judicial powers.

The Constitution of Cameroon guarantees the protection of human rights since it enshrines the basic principles which underlie the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, namely, the equality of men and women, offences and punishments to be strictly defined by law, non-retrospective effect of the law. Moreover, it accords to the people of Cameroon the various fundamental freedoms (of the press of expression, of worship). Moreover, it is explicitly stated in the Preamble to the Constitution that the law shall ensure the right of everyone to a fair hearing in strict compliance with the rights of defence (presumption of innocence).

The criminal law applies to all. Everyone has the right of recourse to the competent national courts to seek an effective remedy against acts that violate the fundamental rights accorded to him or her by the laws in force. Thus, any victim of an act that violates his or her rights has a triple right of action: – proceedings in the criminal courts for application of the penalties laid down for any offence; – proceedings for damages in the civil courts; – proceedings in the administrative courts to have an administrative act that violates a right declared invalid or set aside. [2]

Many customary practices have unfavourable consequences for women: – early and forced marriages; – obstacles to the exercise of traditional authority by women; – sexual abuse; – female genital mutilation; – abusive widowhood rites; – food taboos and prohibitions; – the subjection of women in matters of reproductive health; – physical violence and mental cruelty; – obstacles to succession; – levirate, a practice which is dying out.

In Cameroon, early marriage is in fact illegal, for which the maximum age is 18 years inline with CEDAW’s Convention. Although ‘early’ is not explicitly defined to mean less than 18 years old, it is frequently found in that context, for instance, uses the term ‘early marriage’ consistently, and its stated goal is to prevent marriage before the age of 18. UNICEF’s publication “Early Marriage: A Harmful Traditional Practice” measures the “proportion of women aged 20–24 married by the exact age of 18,”[i] in fact, most organizations that collect data on early marriage use the under-18 benchmark. The Convention on the Rights of the Child General Comment 4, which uses only ‘early marriage’ and never ‘child marriage,’ notes that:

In some states parties, married children are legally considered adults, even if they are under 18, depriving them of all the special protection measures they are entitled under the Convention.

The Committee strongly recommends that States parties review and, where necessary, reform their legislation and practice to increase the minimum age for marriage with and without parental consent to 18 years, for both girls and boys

 However, the penal code of Cameroon further states that marriage must involve the consent of both parties and must be recognized by an official certificate. But in practice, the law fails to protect most of these young girls or women from been a subject of early marriages particularly in the Far North region.

Young women or girls who grow up in the Far North region and some other parts of Cameroon turn to marry early as a result of being subject to the context of poverty, as parents see schooling for their daughters as prohibitory cost and also view them as a burden to be relief by marrying them off in exchange for financial returns as bride price payment from their son-in-laws. This leaves them in disadvantageous positions within the society as their dreams and aspirations of their lives have been cut short.In this region, statistics which have shown close to 20-29 women have been subjected to early marriages under the ages of 16 and has caused them to liable to violations and commonly find themselves in polygamous marriages, that is when these young women or girls are married they are married off to older men who are married already or have previous wives.[3]This list of harmful acts and practices could not, by any reasonable analysis, be read to include only marriages that are both early and forced, and not to include marriages that are forced but not early, or marriages that are early but not forced.  In this context, the term ‘early and forced marriage’ encompasses a situation in which a 23-year-old woman is physically or psychologically compelled into marriage, and  a situation in which a 14-year-old girl ‘consented’ to marriage before she was physically and psychologically ready to do so. Both situations embody “discriminatory and harmful acts and practices that are violent towards women.”

In such cases, the term ‘early or forced marriage,’ or alternatively, ‘early marriage’ could be seen as violations of the young women’s and girls right to health occur as a result of high rates of sexual violence, among other forms of violence, that take place in early and forced marriages, complications arising from early pregnancy and childbirth, barriers to accessing comprehensive health services and information, including sexual and reproductive health information and services, stigma and discrimination, among others. Norms and social barriers create situations in which married young women and girls are unable to make autonomous decisions within relationships, freely express their sexualities, exert control over their reproductive lives, make free and informed decisions regarding if and when to have children, access services and information and decide freely if and when, and with whom, to enter into relationships. This creates barriers to married young women and girls’ access to modern methods of contraception, safe abortion services, effective Sexually Transmitted Infection prevention methods, among other information and services related to their sexual and reproductive health. Such inequalities are often rooted in harmful cultural and religious traditions that render it permissible to restrict young women and girls’ autonomy, agency and well-being.  These young women who marry early eventually loss their independence in many forms such as financial independence as it becomes difficult to engage in labour force activities while joggling household duties, also as many will stop furthering their level of educational attainment. They also loss their freedom to the outside world and engage less, while some are secluded in isolation subjecting them to depression , emotional trauma. At the regional level, Cameroon is a State Party to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR). This Charter, mirroring other international human rights instruments, protects all individuals against violence including torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatments and provides for the promotion of gender equality.[4]

Thus, article 2 of the Charter states that “Every individual shall be entitled to the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms recognized and guaranteed in the present Charter without distinction of any kind such as … sex,”Article 3 guarantees that all are “equal before the law” and that everyone is “entitled to equal protection of the law”.

Article 4 protects each human being’s right to life and to physical and moral integrity followed by article 5 which forbids physical or psychological torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights constitutes the first international instrument to detail the rights and freedoms of individuals, and contains 30 articles covering the integrity of the individual, political and civil rights

(such as freedom of thought, expression, religion, association and access to the political process) and economic rights (such as the right to employment, education, social security, and full participation in society). Echoing to the Charter of the United Nations which encourages respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all people “without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion”.[5]

Early marriage is specifically recognized as an abuse of human rights in many United Nations treaties and other international documents.

 Child marriage is also recognized as an abuse of human rights in numerous treaties, and overlaps with forced marriage because minors are deemed incapable of giving informed consent. As a party to many of these treaties, Canada has an international obligation to address the issue of forced marriage, and to ensure that a prerequisite for all marriages within its jurisdiction is the free and informed consent of both parties.

• Common law courts have established that duress in forced marriage cases does not have to be confined to physical coercion, and can also include emotional pressure. However, parental pressure will not necessarily amount to duress in all situations because valid consent can be “reluctant” or “resentful”. What matters is whether the will of the individual has been overborne by the pressure. If this is the case, the marriage is not founded on the free and informed consent of both parties.
• The research on the UK initiatives appears the most useful for Canada to determine possible routes which can be taken in the future due to the similarities and close ties between the two countries, as well as the depth to which the UK has gone in investigating the issue.

The British government has demonstrated its commitment to combat the issue by creating a joint team between the Foreign Commonwealth and Home Offices to address forced marriage.

There has been conducted research and consultations, proposed legislation, compiled statistics, and arranged support and rescue operations for victims of violations.

• Other countries have implemented various measures in an attempt to address the practice of forced marriages. Some of these measures include:
• Introducing legislation to criminalize the practice (Norway, Belgium);
• revising existing offences to criminalize activities associated with forced marriage (Australia, Denmark, Germany)
• Raising the minimum age of marriage (France, Gabon, Indonesia, UK)
• Tightening immigration laws (Denmark).

There are also a wide variety of support and awareness programs in place for victims. By studying the public response to these initiatives, as well as their impacts, Canada can make a more informed decision about its own preferred action plan.

The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, popularly known as the Maputo Protocol was adopted in 2003 and came into force in 2005. 41 countries have ratified it as at early 2018. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights oversees implementation of the Maputo Protocol.

 The Maputo Protocol is elaborate in its protection of women and includes all categories of rights drafted from a women’s rights perspective. A snapshot of the Maputo Protocol is provided here under key themes: Equality & non-discrimination

• Elimination of discrimination (article 2)
• Access to justice, including legal aid and the training of law enforcement officials (article 8) • Political participation and decision-making (article 9)
• Education (article 12) Protection against violence
• Bodily integrity and dignity, including sexual violence, trafficking of women and medical and scientific experimentation (article 3 and 4)
• Practices harmful to women, including female genital mutilation (article 5).
• Gender stereotypes (article 4(2), (c) and (d))[6]
• Marriage and its effect on property relations, nationality, name (article 6(e) to (j))
• Minimum age of marriage (article 6(b))
• Registration of marriages (article 6(d))
• Protection of women in polygamous marriages (article 6(c))
• Protection of women during separation, divorce or annulment of marriage (article 7)
• Protection of children in the family (article 6(i)

 The African Commission has however established the mandate of a Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa (SRRWA) Inform and engages with the SRRWA on high-level advocacy and in the event of serious or massive violations of women’s rights. Submit communications (cases) of women’s rights violations. These can be submitted where local remedies have been exhausted or are unduly prolonged.

1.3)  RESEARCH QUESTION

1.3.1) MAIN RESEARCH QUESTION

To what extent do local and international regulations empower women and protect them against early marriage?

1.3.2) SPECIFIC RESEARCH QUESTIONS

What is the conceptual link nature of early marriage and women’s empowerment in law?

What are the legal, institutions and policy framework put in place for empowerment and the protection against early marriage at local, regional and international levels?

How effective are the new mechanisms put in place for empowerment and eradication of early marriage in Cameroon?

What are the policy recommendations to redress the problem raised?

1.4) RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

1.4.1) MAIN RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

To assess the extent how regulations empower women and protect them against early marriage.

1.4.2) SPECIFIC RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

To critically examine the conceptual link nature of early marriage and women’s empowerment in law.

To expand the legal, institutions and policy framework put in place for empowerment and the legal protection against early marriage at the local, regional and international levels.

To assess the effective new mechanisms put in place for the empowerment and the eradication of early marriage

To make policy recommendations to redress the problem raise