Happy holidays!

Human IS Right wishes everybody happy holidays!

Thanks for helping us try to make our world a better place!

A concern for the CAR

 

 

The recent events and the social movements across North Africa, the Middle East and ongoing social unrest in CAR (Central African Republic) have highlighted the emergence of a new generation of leaders that yearn for social and peaceful change. They long for meaningful work but don't know how to focus their energy and effectively impact their societies in the time of crisis. They shall see the creative chaos of this time as a great gift and opportunity to rethink, reconnect, reinvent and yearn for Democratic and peaceful change. If their authentic style of community organizing could be matched with the self-awareness, mindfulness and compassion practices of meditation, it could revolutionize how they affect social change.

Human IS Right is concerned about the ongoing social unrest in the CAR and is calling on present and future leaders of Africa to rethink strategic change in leadership and distribution of scarce resources for the benefit of their populations.

There is need to:
- Bring young leaders and change makers from various parts of Africa especially areas that are prone to conflict together.
- Provide a forum for networking and exchange of experiences by fostering mutual dialogue and share visions to manifest tangible peaceful changes in their communities.
- Provide these future leaders with the tools to inner peace, self-development, peaceful strategic change leadership and meditation that helps strengthen their mediation skills and prevent conflict.
- Help them acquire Leadership skills through mindfulness, self-discipline and compassion.

Celebrating Human Rights Day

 The 10th of December 2013 marks the 65th Human Rights Day! This year the theme is '20 Years Working for Your Rights'. The day is marked both by high-level political conferences, meetings and by numerous activities. Human IS Right joined the Regional Secretariat for the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms for the South West Region to discuss topical issues related to Human Rights abuses in the region. The two main issues discussed were the illegal allocation of lands by some chiefs in the Fako Division and abuse of power and office by some officials of forces of law and order.

 

A tribute to Mandela - reflections on Development

Local, national and international development is all about change, positive change on some really big issues; poverty, health, inclusive and accountable government, rights, the environment and so much more. 

Certainly a way to celebrate the life, greatness and achievements of Nelson Mandela is for governments and for all of us involved in Development to take some time out to reflect on the change principles and strategies that drive our work, be that local action, big funding decisions or any other work along that horizontal continuum.

 

Thanks to a great man...

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." (Nelson Mandela, 18/07/1918-05/12/2013)

SUPPORTING GENDER EQUALITY IN RURAL CAMEROON

 

 

For the past couple of weeks, the Human IS Right team has been working very hard with women groups in two villages in the Buea municipality to develop a new project that will engage in advocating for women's access to land rights. With the help of Graziella Scudu and Megan Heweyers our inters respectively from Italy and Canada and female volunteers at the South West Regional office for the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms; we were able to carry research on needs assessment to design a suitable project on land rights and the rule of law. The project is tagged SUPPORTING GENDER EQUALITY IN RURAL CAMEROON. Cudos to the HISR team.

Human IS Right Celebrates World Human Rights Day

Human IS Right joins the rest of the international community to celebrate World Human Rights Day. The theme of this year's commemoration is "WORKING FOR YOUR RIGHTS" . As the theme states, Human IS Right shall join the Regional Secretariat for he National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms in a one day conference. Human IS Right's team will present on the 10th of December shall present two papers one on Post Elections Survey Report and Land Rights and The Rule of Law: Helping the Woman.

 

Theatre and reality

Human IS Right wants to promote a very touching work by Egly Larreynaga y Luis Felpeto which tells the real story of four inmates of the psychiatric department of Soyapango prison in San Salvador, El Salvador. http://www.teatroechegaray.com/es/info/los-mas-solos

Prisons overcrowding, a decaying situation for prisoners in Cameroon!

Prisons overcrowding, a decaying situation for prisoners in Cameroon! Overcrowding in prisons is a prevailing problem across many countries in Africa, with the ill practice of holding prisoners on remand compounding the issue. The result is... that in Cameroon a good majority of the prison population is made up of those awaiting trial. Investigations clearly show that prison conditions are inhumane and fundamentally breach human rights. Overcrowding is such that some prisoners sleep on bare floor in the very cold weather of Buea in the rainy season and very hot during the dry season. Poor prisoners face physical, financial and language barriers and in most cases do not have a lawyer. A great majority of those incarcerated in the Buea central prison come from the rural areas and neighboring villages with very low income (below $2 per day) and most of them are primary school drop out; they do not speak English and can barely understand the language of the court.

Can women land rights reduce domestic violence against women?

Can women land rights reduce domestic violence against women? An initiative of Landesa, the Center for Women's Land Rights champions the untapped potential of women and girls to transform their communities. With secure rights to land, women and girls can improve food security, education, health, and economic development for themselves and their families.

24th session of the Human Rights Council: Reports

The OHCHR Report on "views of States, national human rights institutions and other relevant stakeholders on the target sectors, focus areas or thematic human rights issues for the third phase of the World Programme for Human Rights Education" is now available online for downloading. You can download the reports from this website http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session24/Pages/ListReports.aspx

Thanks Pascual!

Thanks a lot to Pascual Val Infante who left Cameroon last week after helping a lot Human IS Right!

Advocating for Human and Civil Rights

For the past months, Human IS Right team has been working closely with different government public offices such as the Buea central prison, the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms, the Focal Integrity Team for Cameroon, Njilla Esq law chambers, Wisdom and Solution…to investigate the human rights situation in Buea, to advocate and promote, amplify the voices and efforts of the Cameroon government and different communities to promote human rights and social justice.

Through the Amazing works of our incredible volunteers and interns, we have done amazing works in putting to light human rights abuses in the Buea central prison, provide training to inmates on computer maintenance and camera repairs with our partner Wisdom and Solutions. We have also been supporting the hard work of the Borstal Institute by providing social educators to train and support socially maladjusted children in the reinsertion process.

Creating awareness on issues considered as "tabou" in our society such as violence, abuse and social discrimination, delayed justice, illegal and arbitrary detention…has not been easy task for Human IS Right; but we are glad to say that it has been an amazing journey, one that we have gladly contributed our all, ensuring to make an impact by raising awareness in solidarity with our cause.

Human IS Right is appealing to all its supporters, members and friends to support our hard work either by volunteering with us or by making a generous donation to support our work.

 

Cameroon: Transparency International Attributes the POLICE corps as the most corrupt in Cameroon

 In a report released, Transparency International identifies 12 most affected areas.

Key findings of a survey by the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) of Transparency International (TI) for 2013 say 46 per cent of Cameroonians believe the canker worm has increased while 24 per cent think it has not changed. Sectors like the police, judiciary, education, political parties, military, medical corps, parliament, religious bodies and media have been singled out as the most corrupt in the country.

While police is reported to be one of the most corrupt institutions in Cameroon with 86 per cent of respondents saying so, the judiciary follows closely with 81 per cent while the education sector and public officials (Civil Servants) counts 72 per cent. However, NGOs, religious bodies and the media tail the chart as bodies involved in corrupt acts.

The survey was presented to the press in Yaounde on July 9, 2013 by Transparency International Cameroon (TI-C). It however shows that the public is increasingly willing to engage in the eradication of the curse. The GCB was carried out this year by 114, 000 respondents from 107 countries, including Cameroon.

The survey was conducted in Cameroon on August 16, 2013 through a computer assisted face-to-face survey. Results revealed that 94 per cent of people interviewed said they would act against corruption by taking actions like signing a petition asking government to do more to fight the ill, taking part in a peaceful protest or demonstration against corruption, buying goods from a company that is corruption-free and spreading the word about the problem on social media. Over 74 per cent of Cameroonians accepted they would report an incident of corruption.

Transparency International (TI) is the largest opinion survey on corruption conducted worldwide. With regards to the survey in Cameroon based on demographical information of July 2012, 1,000 people were randomly sampled and interviewed from the 10 regions of Cameroon on their perception of corruption in the country as well as government's efforts to fight it. The target population is aged 18 and above.

Thanks Uriel!

Human IS Rights says goodbye and thanks a lot Uriel Mazzoli, an international intern from Italy, who spent many months in Cameroon working greatly with HisR! Uriel, your work was brilliant and you deeply helped HisR to improve! See you soon!

Human IS Right joins the rest of the World to celebrate the day of the African Child

 This year the Day is dedicated to Eliminating Harmful Social and Cultural Practices Affecting Childre: Our Collective Responsibility. International law guarantees the respect of the views of the child. According to article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, this includes the right of the child to be heard and have his or her view given due weight in any judicial and administrative proceeding affecting him or her. It is also interesting to notice that, in the framework of the African Charter on the Right and Welfare of the Child, article 4 on the best interests of the child provides for the right of the African child to have his or her view considered in all proceedings affecting him or her.
This year's Day of the African Child was celebrated remarkably and at a time when Human IS Right launched a project called Juvenile Delinquency Reformation Project and the theme was resounding fresh memories about cases of violence against children in the Buea community. The day provided an open forum for stakeholders to identify, explore and reflect the integrity of our communities in preserving the present for our future. The event was a great one that saw the participation of top government officials and local NGOs. Human IS Right, besides its daily action, extended material support to six selected graduates who had come to the end of their reformation from the Borstal Institute.

 

 

Amnesty International - Annual Report 2013

http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/cameroon/report-2013

HisR is one year old!

Human IS Right is celebrating its first birthday! Thanks to every person who is contributing to our action! Let's go!!!

Mob Justice, Violation of Human Rights

 Today May 14, a young man was almost killed by the population of Molyko Buea, for stealing a lady's hand bag from her car. The mob was apparently retaliating against the constant theft in the Molyko neighborhood. Human IS Right centre is calling on the public against the habit of taking the law into their own hands, warning that such action will only result in a chaotic society where no one's rights will be observed no security guaranteed. Mob justice, is a negative phenomenon affecting the development of human rights in the society,moreover mob justice specifically violates two articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—the right to a fair trial (Article 10) and the right to stand innocent of a crime before being proved guilty (Article 11).

 

Goodbye to our intern Linda!

After working in the capacity of international intern on the Prisoners Rights Project and also working on promoting other projects run by HISR, today Linda returns back to Italy her home country after a three months stay in Cameroon. We say goodbye to Linda and thank her very much for her brilliant personality and hard working attitude and commitment to promote Human Rights in Cameroon.

Goodbye to our intern Ksenia

We are giving our farewell to Ksenia Arefyeva that completed her
internship with Human IS Right on Monday.
Ksenia was working as a social educator inside the Borstal Institute for
the period of three months and contributed to improve the activities
carried by the Institute.

New website!

We are pleased to introduce our new website to you! With this new version we will try to update everybody on our activities! Enjoy it!

Welcome!

The Prisoners' Rights Project has a new intern: a big welcome to Linda Zaccour!

Work is going on...

Our great interns are at the moment developing the Prisoners' Rights Project in the Buea prison and a pilot project that we really hope to be able to announce soon...!!!

Welcome!

HisR welcomes Camilla Labate in Buea on the PRP!

Welcome!

A big welcome to Iolanda Apostoaiei on the Prisoners' Rights Project!

Welcome!

Human IS Right welcomes today Ksenia Arefyeva and Uriel Mazzoli on the Prisoners' Rights Project! Our best wishes to succeed in our goals! Let's go!