According to human rights organizations a prisoner is a
person who is kept in a prison as a punishment for a crime that they have
committed. This however does not make him or her less human and so prisoners
have a right to be treated as human beings with some dignity. Ndi Nelson the NW
regional secretary for the National commission for human rights and freedoms while
appreciating the management of prisoners in Cameroon prisons said the situation
needs real improvement. Even though there are efforts to improve he adds
Cameroon is still far below standards.
It is this kind of treatment that caused the organization
“lawyers without boarders” to develop a project on protecting the dignity of
people in detention. The implementation of the project has so far witnessed the
organization of workshops in some areas of Cameroon. Meeting in Bamenda for
another workshop from February 25 2014 with the intention to “promote the
minimal rules securing the rights of incarcerated people in Cameroon, lawyers
without boarders understands vividly the problems faced by prisoners in
Cameroon reason why a fight to redress the situation has been launched. Talking
to Bakahonline Barrister Barnabe Nekuie president of Lawyers without borders
pointed out problems of overcrowding in prisons especially the kondengui
maximum prison in Yaounde and the new bell prison in Douala as well as excessive
punishment meted out on prisoners or persons in detention
While acknowledging the problem of overcrowding Mr Tiwa Jonas
administrator of the Bamenda Central Prison himself a workshop participant told
bakahonline that there are efforts underway for improvement.
With support from the European Union, region midi Pyrenees
and the Paris Bar association, Lawyers without Boarders believes that at the
close of this workshop attended by lawyers, magistrates, penitentiary,
gendarmerie and national security officials as well as authorities of the
National Commission for human rights and freedoms regional offices, prisoners
will in the nearest future be treated with some dignity.