Activities in view of consolidating the role of youths as human rights advocates were carried out in South Africa. The activities were an integral part of the BIIWONG – AFRICA UNITE, youth exchange program. The aim has been to enrich youths with human rights precepts, to serve as human rights promoters and advocates in their respective milieus. It further had a wider goal, to cause a human rights movement across the African continent.
The workshop activities were titled ‘Building Human Rights Communities’. The training activities were inclusive, involving a cross-section of experience sharing from varied backgrounds of human rights cultures and practices. This gave the workshop participants the latitude to reconcile different human rights views and to adopt new perspectives. The workshop methodologies involved; group discussions, brainstorming exercises, question and answer sessions, sharing of different perspectives, video expositions etc. International documents and instruments characterized the workshops documents.
The feedback gotten from the ‘youth exchange program’ was replicated in the respective local milieus as a follow-up activity of the workshop outcome.
At the level of Cameroon, human rights activities were conducted with 150 youths of 3 communities. The workshop activities were aimed at fulfilling the following objectives;
- To build knowledge and understanding of facts on human rights
- To strengthen the commitment of youths and their respective communities in the promotion and advancement of human rights in Cameroon.
- To attain the overall objective to cause a movement of human rights activist across Africa
The workshop was more orientated within the specific context of Cameroon with, borrowed experiences gained during the ‘youth exchange program’ in South Africa to exemplify the ongoing crises in Cameroon and the increase human rights abuses. The guiding question was; ‘How can youths contribute to the respect of rights of persons in Cameroon’.
International instruments ratified by Cameroon were discussed with the participants in a bid to sensitize them on governing human rights in Cameroon. Through brainstorming exercises on ‘rights – violation’, it was realized most of these instruments have less binding force in Cameroon.
The national legislations for the promotion of rights of persons have as well been neglected in most instances. The question as to how to improve the respect of international and national legislations was then raised. The following recommendations were proposed;
- Increase awareness on international and national instruments for the promotion and enforcement of human rights.
- Increase youth’s participation in human right forums to serve as ‘human rights watch dogs’. This will enable them to document annually human rights violations.
- Advocate for an enabling environment for the enforcement of human right instruments.
- Propose recommendations annually to the parliament for improved measures on human rights violations.
