Let’s start off with some good news- Cameroun joined 27 other
African countries in promoting the health and rights of women when it
ratified the Maputo Protocol on May 28^th,
2009.  The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights
on the Rights of Women in Africa, better known as the Maputo Protocol,
guarantees the human rights of women throughout the continent. 
Adopted by the African Union in 1993, the Protocol calls for the
adoption and implementation of national measures that uphold women’s
sexual and reproductive rights, political and social equality, and the
right to live free from violence and coercion, while providing a
comprehensive legal framework for holding African governments
accountable for violations.

Sadly, the reaction in the Camerounian press to the ratification of
the Protocol has been largely negative, and predominately based on
false information and deliberate obfuscation on the part of the
Catholic Church.  The National Episcopal Conference of Cameroun
released a press statement denouncing Article 14 of the Protocol, which
calls on State parties to "protect the reproductive rights of women
by authorizing medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape,
incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental and
physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or the foetus."

The release, which the prelates accuse of giving "abusive
reproductive rights" to women, is actually far more measured than the
church’s reaction in other fora has been. At a demonstration against the ratification on July 11,
Cardinal Christian Tumi, Archbishop of Douala, once again condemned
abortion as "an abomination" and conflated abortion with gay marriage,
despite the absence of gay rights from the actual Maputo Protocol.

Many protesters showed similar confusion, recently highlighted on the popular television program Cartes Sur Table, which dedicated its June 23^rd
episode to the controversy.  Speaking on behalf of the Catholic
International Press Union of Africa, Abbot Antoine Depadoue Chonang
insisted that the Maputo Protocol is a "trojan horse" for homosexual
rights.  Fortunately, Cartes Sur Table also featured Ms. Alice
Nkom, the president of the Association for the Defense of
Homosexuality, or ADEFHO, who spoke eloquently on the need for Cameroun
to step out from under the influence of the Catholic Church and
recognize the human and civil rights of all its citizens, including
sexual minorities and women.  ADEFHO will continue its public
information campaign to advance sexual and reproductive health and
rights.    As part of its advocacy campaign, ADEFHO is calling upon
other women’s rights organizations in Cameroun to reclaim control of
the debate over the Maputo Protocol and place it back firmly where it
belongs: in the hands of the women who need it.

Click here for a full report of the June 23 edition of Cartes Sur Table in PDF form.

To learn more about ADEFHO’s work on LGBTQQI rights in Cameroun, click here and here.

To learn more about IWHC’s work on women’s sexual and reproductive rights and health in Cameroun, click here.

To learn more about IWHC’s regional advocacy on sexual and reproductive rights and health, click here.

Chelsea Ricker is the Africa Program Assistant at the International Women’s Health Coalition. Read her bio here.