• Cease immediately the mass evictions and demolitions occurring in this area;

• Immediately annul the decisions to clear out these neighborhoods in Douala;

• Carry out the compensation of populations already left the neighborhood and who find themselves homeless.

• Proceed to compensation for persons holding land titles and building permits.
  take urgent measures to ensure adequate alternative accommodation;
  undertake an open dialogue with affected communities in accordance with human rights principles, especially CESCR General Comment No. 7;

• Respect their obligations under international law and respect the right of all citizens of legal security, including adequate housing, the right to participation and expression; and integration.

I. Summary

Despite the recommendations of the UN Committee of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) at its 42th Session at Geneva, Switzerland, in November 2011, a wave of evictions still continues in Cameroon. This time, Douala, the economic capital is under the spotlight.

Evoking the argument that recent flooding in the city has affected drains and waterways occupied by people, the Cameroon authorities, including ministers of Housing and Urban Development, and Property and Land Affairs, as well as regional and local authorities in the Prefect of Douala and the government delegate to the Douala Urban Community (the patron of the city) took the final decision to demolish nearly 397 homes in several neighborhoods of the District V of Douala. It would be in defiance of timeliness, of any proceedings and any support for the concerned victims.

Already, in May of this year 2015, similar operations were still announced to take place at another place called PK 14–17, in Douala. Despite protests from the concerned inhabitants, the press, civil society, lawyers and other activists for human dignity, the authorities started demolishing the houses of the people of Maképè-Missoké on Monday, 6 July 2015 plunged many families in distress and desolation. It should be noted that other areas of the same district are involved in this vast demolition operation.

II. The Victims

According to the daily Cameroon Tribune (official newspaper) of Tuesday, 7 July 2015 (No. 10878/7077), the eviction operation began in an area of water drainage from the City of Douala at 06h30 with a force from the Urban Community (municipality) and fifty gendarmes positioned on the approaches to the bridge over the Tongo River to Bassa. This is therefore the implementation of the unilateral decision taken by the political authorities an agreement with the delegate of the Urban Community of Douala Mr. Fritz Ntonè Ntonè.

The exact number of victims is certainly difficult to estimate at this time, but it must be recalled that about 397 families are involved. The number of persons affected by this operation totals almost 1,985 people, who will be left homeless if the action continues and nothing is done to stop the process. The worst of all is that the deadlines set by the authorities have not allowed the residents to leave the area before the demolition begins.

The victims are mostly hawkers, shopkeepers, hairdressers, workers in low and middle-income jobs, families with children still attending school, young people and even seniors. For now, these victims have no assurance of alternative accommodation, let alone compensation. The authorities have remained elusive, if not silent on the issue.

III. Perpetrators of the Violations

Demolition of the Maképè-Missoké district is a decision the ministers of Housing and Urban Development, and Property and Land Affairs, the person in charge of regional and local authorities in consultation with the Delegate of Urban Community Douala who felt that the recent floods are the result of constructions on drains and wetlands. Thus, the Douala Urban Community has assumed responsibility for destroying the makeshift homes and even permanent structures in the Maképè-Missoké area.

IV. Events, Developments and Consequences

The population has invested in these neighborhoods and have built their homes there for fifteen years. As revealed by the daily Emergence (No. 537, Wednesday, 8 July 2015), the majority of these people hold land titles and even building permits issued by the Urban Community, while these areas are also declared of public utility by the state. This same newspaper goes even further by reporting that the minister of Property and Land Affairs Jacqueline Kong à Bessikewas offended that land in the area of ​​the state can be sold to third parties by authorities responsible for issuing building permits.

In response, officials have said that these land titles are not listed in the land records and the building permits were issued by corrupt officials of the Urban Community, which puts on the table the issue of corruption in the administration of land tenure in Cameroon. Dominus, the information and entertainment weekly (No. 036, 1–15 July 2015) has gone so far as to say that “a land title was quashed by the Supreme Court with the notation ‘no subject to appeal’.”

So amid polemics of homing trials among populations affected by the demolition operations and political authorities that from this Monday, July 6, the agents of the Douala Urban Community began the eviction process in neighborhood Maképè-Missoké in the District V of the city of Douala, forcing many families to wander, to cohabit, for those who are lucky with their relatives or friends or to sleep in the open with children and young people who are just taking their school or academic holidays.

V. Official Rationale

On the night of 21 to 22 June 2015, the city of Douala has experienced heavy rain followed by damage especially human life losses with three dead children whose Bepanda and Maképè-Missoké neighborhoods in the district of Douala V.

The ministers of housing and urban development areas, land registries and land affairs, the one in charge of regional and local authorities together with the Prefect of Douala and government delegate to the Urban Community of Douala conducted once a downhill terrain, and concluded that the cause of the flooding is having built on drains and swamps, which prevents water from all kinds of travel from where floods.

The authorities believed that the forced evictions and demolitions would make the flooding stop. Despite the presentation by several concerned their land titles obtained there for fifteen years as well as building permits issued by the competent authorities. That is, neither long-term residence, land title nor building permits were taken into account when it came to decide to demolish the Maképè-Missoké neighborhood. The most urgent need was to clear out the people in defiance of their dignity and their rights, because the perpetrators have made no promise or commitment compensation, compensation or any resettlement.

Beyond the problems of flooding and damage, state officials have followed a six-step administrative procedure in issuing the land titles and building permits. This includes a field visit, in order to verify whether or not the requested parcel falls within the state property or is classified as high-risk zones.

VI. Violations of the Human Rights to Adequate Housing

Regardless of the official reasons to evict residents of their location, their treatment under the expulsion cannot be considered legal only under certain safeguards and provisions as preconditions. Forced eviction without consultation in advance with the locals; their consent; due process; protection against abuse, including ensuring to no one becomes homeless; and/or other protections of the state would be a gross violation of human rights. These expulsions also have an impact on the rights related to the right to adequate housing, such as the right to food, the right to water, the right to health, right to education and the right to the means of subsistance. Cameroon supports the obligation to respect, protect and fulfill the right to adequate housing due to its ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), on 27 September 1984.

At the national level, the Constitution of Cameroon of 18 January 1996, in its preamble, recognizes the right to land and housing to every individual of the Cameroonian people to exploit its natural resources to ensure the well-being of all in raising the standard of living without discrimination affirms its right to development and its willingness to devote all its efforts to achieve it. The preamble to the Constitution also promises that “The State shall guarantee all citizens the conditions necessary for their development” and that “The home is inviolable. No search may take place only under the law.” However, we must say that the Cameroonian land code does not provide for compensation in the case of demolition on state land and risk areas. So far, no action has been taken to indemnify the evicted families and/or those yet to be evicted.

Internationally, the state violates Articles 8, 12, 13, 17, 19, 23 and 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Articles 2, 4, 11, 15 of the ICESCR (ratified by Cameroon in 1984) and the General Comments No. 4 and No. 8. In addition, Cameroon is violating sections 1, 2, 17, 19, 21, 22, 25 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), ratified by Cameroon 27 September 1984, and other legal standards. Specifically, Article 11 of the ICESCR states that “The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions.” In addition to ICESCR, Cameroon also ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDaW), on 22 September 1994, and acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms Discrimination against Women on 7 January 2005.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Cameroon ratified on 10 February 1993, specifically requires states to protect the right of children to adequate housing (Article 27.3). The ICCPR also prohibits cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and/or punishment (Article 7) and the arbitrary use of force (Article 17).

Besides the fact to violate all international standards, current evictions of Cameroon in this area reflect a trend of continuing housing rights violations. In its Concluding Observations in 1999, CESCR has registered its concern at “the high incidence of forced evictions in rural areas of Cameroon, which have not been addressed in the written replies by the State party,” and urged “the State party to implement laws and policies to combat the problem of forced evictions, in accordance with General Comments No. 4 and No. 7 of the Committee.[1] Furthermore, the use of violence and torture as instruments of intimidation and fear Cameroon to was recognized by the Committee against Torture as matters of deep concern.[2]

Regionally, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has also established that authorities must explore alternatives and options with the affected community, provide adequate notice and information, ensure the availability of alternative accommodation, as well as an opportunity to appeal a deportation order before eviction. As in General Comment No. 7 of CESCR, African jurisprudence affirms the prohibition that nobody shall be made homeless as a result of eviction.[3]

The Cameroon authorities have claimed that these evictions are based on the law enforcement requirements. However, they constitute cruel use of force and also have violated the Code of Conduct for Officers of Public Order (Article 3), the which General Assembly adopted in resolution 34/169, 17 December 1979, as well as the UN Basic Principles on the Use of force and Firearms in accordance with the law enforcement officials (1990). The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights asserts the same principles, in particular in Article 6. In case of Cameroon, the state has not only violated its commitments to treaties and other international legal instruments, but also failed to inform the population affected, and did not provide any sustainable alternative or remedy, or monetary compensation or alternative housing.

VII. Actions already Taken

The only actions at this time against the evictions of people in the district of Douala V fall denunciations of defending human rights and media organizations (print, radio and private television).

[1] Concluding Observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Cameroun,

E/C.12/1/Add.40, 8 December 1999, paras. 24, 41.

[2] Committee against Torture, “Concluding Observations: Cameroun,” CAT/C/CMR/CO/4, 19 Amy 2010, para. 20, at:

http://docstore.ohchr.org/SelfServices/FilesHandler.ashx?enc=6QkG1d%2fPPRiCAqhKb7yhsvo7kjjQy53lGYOi8v5hl4iPn7I9IY1nExcKTtp%2fN5KadpS86vHpRPEYS5pHKHQssN9JgPJfGCeUTJhWfT359dIhNZodnc%2b57Ph167S4NOMl.

[3] Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC) and The Centre for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) v. Nigeria, 200, Communication No. 155/96, African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, 6 June 2001.

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