VOlUME 04 ISSUE 06 JUNE 2021
Dr. Egute Matthew Amandong
Senior Lecturer: Department Of English Law, Faculty Of Laws And Political Science; University Of Yaounde Ii, Soa – Cameroon.
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ABSTRACT
Human Rights are those rights which are inherent in our nature and without which we cannot live as human beings. The sad fact remains that despite the guarantee of human rights by the Constitution of Cameroon and international treaties, the female half of humanity remains subject to distinctive and continuous forms of abuses, injustice and violence as well as to an enormous range of legal disabilities and discrimination. Our findings revealed that most of the abuses against the women in Cameroon are perpetuated under customary law by the men who see themselves more superior than the women. These abuses take the form of domestic violence and torture, the refusal of the right of inheritance, control and ownership of landed property, ignoring of the woman’s right of consent before marriage, infant betrothal, shaving of hair and sleeping on the floor by a widow after the death of the husband, female genital mutilation and above all, asking a widow to drink the water that was used to wash her husband’s corpse in a bid to prove her innocence that she did not killed her husband. We consider all of these dehumanizing moreover as the woman ceases legally to be a person upon her marriage. Her personality is thus submerged into that of her husband and she becomes the husband’s property. The life of women is thus unfulfilled in many ways and they have accepted this as the natural way of life. There is thus a need for change. This is possible through a careful study and implementation by Cameroon Government of the recommendations that have suggested in the write-up.