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National law and policies on minimum ages – Cameroon

 

According to the CRC, laws and policies must be directed to the best interest of the child. This is especially so in provisions that aim to safeguard the child against exploitation or an early end to childhood, i.e. in the instances where children are most vulnerable and at risk. Yet such safeguards are often ignored and different areas of legislation found to clash with each other. What happens if the age for the end of compulsory education is 14 but the minimum age of employment is 12? Or vice versa? What if a girl can be married before school leaving age - will she then return to school? And who ensures schooling in prisons, when in reality education should protect children from incarceration?

 

 

 

 

With 192 parties to it, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified UN treaty. Each State Party must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which uses this process to monitor State compliance with the treaty. The vast majority of the information on minimum ages presented on these pages is taken directly from such reports (occasionally, if these failed to include relevant information concerning minimum ages, other components of the reporting process - such as the Committee’s Concluding Observations - were consulted). States Parties’ reports constitute self-assessment by governments and are therefore authoritative sources, emanating directly from those empowered to make decisions. Using this type of sources also permits a range of actors to hold governments accountable for the standards which they report under the CRC. The sections of these reports have been reproduced faithfully, and readers are encouraged to make use of the full original text, available here.

 

Individual country reports are often written by diverse parts of the government, and frequently run to more than 100 pages. Moreover, within some states’ legal systems there are various recognised sources of law, which frequently generate conflicting minimum ages. Distilling precise numbers out of such documents is therefore a precarious task. While we would encourage cross-country comparison, we would also stress the danger that those countries with a more honest engagement with the reporting process might come off worse when compared with those which would mis-represent the degree of compliance, whether wilfully or not. For a full explanation of the principles that guided us in our analysis, please visit the introductory pages here.

 

Source: Initial report: CRC/C/28/Add.16, 26 March 2001
 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
23. As far as schools are concerned, the provisions of the Constitution and of article 9 of Act No. 98/004 of 14 April 1999 on education guidelines in Cameroon provide that primary education is compulsory, but do not refer to any age limit for school attendance.
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
22. In social matters, according to article 1 of Order No. 17 of 27 May 1969 on child labour, “Any person of either sex, whether a wage earner or an apprentice, who is below the age of 18 years shall be regarded as a minor” However, the annex to Order No. 16 of 27 May 1969 contains a list of work prohibited to minors. According to article 86-1 of the Labour Code, moreover, “Minors may not be employed in any enterprise, even as apprentices, before the age of 14, except as otherwise provided by order of the Minister of Labour in the light of local circumstances and the work that may be required of them.” On 14 April 1998, Cameroon adopted a law authorizing the President of the Republic to ratify ILO Convention No. 138 on the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and thus considers that the minimum age for admission to employment or work is 14 years, in accordance with its domestic legislation.
 
Minimum age for marriage
20. […] With regard to marriage and according to article 52-1 of Order No. 81/02 of 29 June 1981 on the organization of the civil register, “No marriage may be celebrated if the girl is below the age of 15 years or the boy below the age of 18 years, except under an exemption granted by the President of the Republic for serious reasons.” […]
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
221. Since the Decree of 30 November 1928 establishing special courts and the probation system for minors, Cameroon has adopted the principle of the criminal responsibility of certain juvenile delinquents; they are not, however, indiscriminately penalized. Act No. 65/LF/24 of 12 November 1965 instituting a penal code and Act No. 67/LF/1 of 12 June 1967 containing the Penal Code introduced that colonial decree into the law applicable in independent Cameroon and established a classification of juvenile delinquents. They receive differentiated treatment according to whether they are below 10 years of age, between 10 and 14 years or between 14 and 18 years.
222. Minors below the age of 10 are considered as totally without responsibility; they can therefore not be tried for the acts they have committed. Cameroonian legislation considers this category of minors as completely lacking in discernment. They can therefore never be handed over to the Public Prosecutor’s Office or brought before a judge for sentencing. The parents alone can be sentenced to provide compensation for the harm caused to the victim pursuant to the rules relating to civil liability.
223. A child between the age of 10 and 14 is criminally responsible; however, only one of the special measures provided for by the law can be imposed on him.
224. For minors between the ages of 14 and 18 years, the Penal Code provides for parallel measures.
 
Source: Initial report: CRC/C/28/Add.16, 26 March 2001