Bar council condemns modified Penal Code
-Demands its withdrawal from the National
Assembly
Amongst other things, they have expressed a
desire to re-read the modified the penal code so as to harmonize the English
and French versions, in the best interest of the citizens of Cameroon.
By EssanEkoninyam in Yaounde
One of the bills tabled before members of
the lower house of parliament in the ongoing (June) session of the National
Assembly is that on the modification of the Cameroon penal code. But while the
legislators are examining the draft bill, the lawyers of Cameroon have called
for its immediate withdrawal from Parliament. The lawyers say amongst other
things that they ought to have been consulted before any such decision to
modify the penal code was to be taken.
After
an extraordinary session of the Bar council in Yaounde on Thursday, 16 June
2016, the lawyers issued a press release in which they deplored with gravity
the lack of concordance between the English and French versions of the penal
code. This, they pointed out, can only produce divergent interpretations and
applications of the same law and thus bring about an aggravation of judicial
insecurity.
Also
expressing a firm wish to contribute in the writing of a quality penal code,
the members of the Bar council said in the release that they have set up a
committee of experts that would propose an improvement of the said text to
parliament as soon as possible. The purpose of this, they added, is to drop
outdated sections and articles, verify the conformity of the provisions of this
bill with international instruments ratified by Cameroon, and ensure the
inclusion in the code of criminal sections and articles contained in some
particular laws.
They
thus called for the withdrawal of the bill so that they could do a re-reading
of the text and harmonise the English and French versions, in the best interest
of the citizens of Cameroon.
(See
the Bar council president’s interview below)
The Penal Code should be a consensual tool
- Jackson Francis NgniƩKamga, Bar council
president
In this short interview with the press, the
president of the Cameroon Bar council explains some of the things that are
wrong with the new penal code and calls on the government to sit up.
*In what way does the bill on the
modification of the penal code tabled at the National Assembly constitute a
misstep in the state of law?
The bill has a philosophy that was
expressed in the preamble. In this preamble, the government advanced a number
of justifications. I will mention that which has to do with the reduction of
overcrowding of inmates. In other words, the government has chosen to reduce
congestion in prisons. Paradoxically, the government is instituting through the
penal code new crimes which are all punishable by prison terms above two years.
These new crimes which are non-payment of rents, refusal to execute a court
decision will necessarily lead to the increase in the number of inmates. In a
state of law, legislation is not done to increase the population of inmates; it
is done to reduce it. From this point of view therefore, one can say that there
is a misstep in the state of law.
Cameroon is currently facing a major
security challenge which is terrorism. The Bar council has once raised its
voice on the law suppressing terrorist activities. The Bar council is very
surprised that the provisions of the latter text were not transposed in the
penal code whereas one of the objectives expressed by the government in the
preamble of the text is about bringing together scattered provisions found in
different laws into the unique corpus of our penal code.
Concerning the provision which punishes the
non-payment of rents, the international pact on civil rights and policies,
ratified by Cameroon (article 11), explicitly prohibits imprisonment for
reasons of debts. Nobody can be imprisoned because of a debt which was
established on a contract basis. See how a country which affirms its attachment
to a state of law incriminates this behaviour which international law asks to
be considered as civil…
*You are demanding the withdrawal of the
text and are inviting the National Assembly to assume its responsibilities.
What will the Bar do if its plea is not heard?
The penal code is a tool that has to be
consensual, and I think that the government of the Republic is very aware of
this. It is a text that regulates the life of each and everyone. It therefore
has to be a document of great consensus, even if everyone is not consulted.
When lawyers who implement it on a daily basis say that it is good to look at
it with rigour and modify some provisions, I don’t doubt a moment that the
government will be attentive. What the Bar council has done today [the day of
the extraordinary meeting] is not to defend the interests of a trade union, but
rather that of citizens. The Bar council considers itself as the eldest girl
child of the civil society. With this,
the Bar intends to assume its responsibilities by indicating to Parliament the
direction to follow so as to arrive at a penal code that is acceptable to all
citizens…
*Why did you have to meet the speaker of
the National Assembly [shortly before your extraordinary meeting]?
The speaker of the National Assembly proved
to be attentive. I think he was playing his role. The Parliament legislates in
the name of the Cameroonian people. As a constituted corps, the Bar is a
professional organization instituted by the law. Who observes social issues
better than the lawyer? Who then can say in reality what has to be
reprehensible at one moment and what does not have to be at another? My meeting
with the speaker lasted about one hour, and I can assure you that he took good
note of what we told him. I will not tell you what he told us in return. I
should rather tell you that we gave him a copy of our memorandum containing a
position clearly stated on the philosophy of the text and on some provisions
which seem problematic to us. Same on a number of defaults, the Bar council
pointed out provisions from international treaties and conventions ratified by
Cameroon and which were not transposed in the proposed new document, whereas
these are international engagements which we freely subscribed to as a state.
We have a duty to respect them. I am thus requesting the speaker to be very
attentive to this.
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