UN Authority Figures

UN Women, Executive Board: Cameroon

Displaced women commonly face gender-based violence.
Source: Freedom House, March 4, 2020. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Mission of the UN Women: "The main roles of UN Women are: To support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms; To help Member States to implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it, and to forge effective partnerships with civil society; To hold the UN system accountable for its own commitments on gender equality, including regular monitoring of system-wide progress." (UN Women website)

Term of office: 2022-2024

Cameroon's Record on Women's rights:
"Significant human rights issues included:... lack of investigations and accountability for violence against women;... The law does not specifically prohibit domestic violence... Widows were sometimes forcibly married to one of their deceased husband's relatives to secure continued use of property left by the husband, including the marital home... sexual harassment was widespread and there were no reports that anyone was fined or imprisoned for sexual harassment, in part due to sexual harassment victims' reluctance to file official complaints for fear of reprisal and or stigmatization... In practice, women did not enjoy the same rights and privileges as men. Although local government officials claimed women had access to land in their constituencies, the overall sociocultural practice of denying women the right to own land, especially through inheritance, was prevalent in most regions. The government did not implement any official discriminatory policy against women in such areas as divorce, child custody, employment, credit, pay, owning or managing business or property, education, the judicial process, or housing. There were legal restrictions to women's employment in some occupations and industries..."
(U.S. State Department's Country Report on Human Rights 2020, Cameroon)

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