At a side event of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2021 football competition, the Cameroon Human Rights Commission (CHRC) and Minta District Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate to protect and promote human rights.

Cameroon hosted AFCON throughout January 2022 with matches in five major towns and festivals across the country in rural districts. A delegation from CHRC led by their Chairperson, Prof. James Mouangue Kobila, attended a festival in the district of Minta to promote human rights to the public and gather information about specific problems in the area.

Some of the issues of concern to the population of Minta were:

• early pregnancies
• petty crime, especially among young people
• police harassment
• access to identification

Human rights promotion officers from the CHRC explained human rights protections enshrined in the African Charter and provided information about support available. The MoU calls for particular action towards providing people in Minta with birth certificates to enable them to access identification. It also formalises an agreement to promote human rights areas with particular focus on the rights of women and children and monitoring implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

A full report on the CHRC’s activity at AFCON will soon be released on the Cameroon Human Rights Commission website.