Gay Travel Advisory

Cameroon

Penal Code Law No. 2016/007 from 12 July 2016 & Law on Cybersecurity and Cybercrime established by Law No. 2010/012 from 21 December 201

Sources
  1. Text of the law is available at: https://www.camerlex.com/cameroun-code-penal/

Legal Code Text

Article 347-1 - “Whoever has sexual relations with a person of the same sex shall be punished with imprisonment from 6 months to 5 years and fine of from CFAF 20,000 to CFAF 200,000.”

Article 83 – “Any person who makes sexual propositions to a person of their sex through electronic communications shall be punished with imprisonment of one to two years and a fine of 500,000 to 1,000,000 CFA francs or only one of these two penalties. The penalties provided in paragraph 1 above are doubled when the proposals have been followed by sexual intercourse.”

Sources
  1. Available at: www.glapn.org/sodomylaws/world/cameroon/cameroon.htm
  2. See Criminalizing Identities – Rights Abuses in Cameroon based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, ((New York: Human Rights Watch, 2010) at 10, note 9, available at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2010/11/04/criminalizing-identities-0

ILGA Analysis & Notes

The country’s three leading (and only) lawyers who represent LGBT people described a slight moderation of ofcial attitudes to same-sex sexual relations in the recent period, following international pressure and national advocacy. However, Cameroon remains extremely hostile and dangerous to LGBT people, according to a year-end report from Humanity First, a Yaoundé-based organisation seeking improved health care for LGBTI Cameroonians and recognition of their human rights. Cameroon rejected all seven SOGI recommendations in its 1st cycle UPR in April 2008. Other than accepting one recommendation to, “[i]nvestigate police violence that took place on persons because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation”, it rejected a further 14 recommendations on non-discrimination and decriminalisation made in its 2nd UPR in January 2013, amidst a violent period in the country regarding SOGI issues. The State voluntarily pledged the following: “[f]or instance, regarding the issue of homosexuality, Cameroon was committed not to aggravate current criminal penalties, to continue to apply legal provisions, guarantee a fair trial to alleged homosexuals, and continue not to apply any discriminatory measure against them”. In February 2014, in its concerns about LBT women, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women at para. 37(c) urged that Cameroon should “[r]aise awareness among political, traditional and religious leaders, as well as members of civil society, about the possible withdrawal of article 347bis of the Penal Code”. In its review of 2016, 76 Crimes reports that anti-gay Cameroonians threatened and harassed LGBTI rights advocates in Douala, Cameroon, driving some of them from their homes. In Yaoundé, Cameroon, Jules Eloundou, president of Humanity First, was the target of two homophobic attacks in the guise of burglaries. In early-2017, eforts commenced to create a Human Rights Observatory that will act as a urgently needed watchdog against violations of the rights of LGBT people and human rights defenders.

Sources
  1. Waaldijk, Kees. Legal recognition of homosexual orientation in the countries of Africa, March 2011 “(whit authors)”.

Continued to criminalise under Section 347-1 of the Penal Code (2016), with documented arrests, prosecutions and prolonged pre-trial detention through 2023, including two lesbian couples detained in January 2023.