On October 14th, at the monastery of Mount Febe in Yaounde, about 45 organizations from the Cameroonian civil society, representing associations, NGOs, trade unions, religious denominations and common initiative groups met in a constitutive General Assembly to debate on key statutory tools and regulations governing life within a platform and developed a draft policy (action plan).
At the end of their work, a platform for organizations of Cameroonian civil society organizations on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESC rights) was born.
A long time before this event, ASSOAL and ALVF, two organizations partners of the international ESC rights programme, had contucted awareness activities over months about ESC rights.The emerging Platform is the product of these activities.
The campaign on the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) can now start.
A petition for the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR by Cameroon was written and an appeal to the president of the Republic to ratify the document was sent.
- Appel au Président Paul Biya, oct 2009
In December 2009, the Platform obtained a new communication tool: a website: www.plateformedesccam.org
The year 2010 begun with an African meeting on ESC rights. The representatives of the ESC rights Platforms of Senegal, Benin, Togo, Mali and Cameroon exchanged and deepened their knowledge on ESC Rights enforceability approaches (read more).
The National coordination platform is considering to make an inventory and a diagnosis of ESC Rights in Cameroon and effectively implement activities of the platform’s action plan. Their areas of intervention will focus on themes such as the right to property and housing, health, education, social protection and work.
Eric. O. LEMBEMBE
Translated from French by Claire Boitard
Proofreading by Kate Mugo
