Nationality in Cameroon is governed by the 1968 Code de la Nationalité. The law provides both women and men rights to transmit nationality to children, subject to rules establishing descent for children born out of wedlock. It also provides that a child born in Cameroon who does not acquire any other nationality at birth is Cameroonian. However, a woman has no right to transmit her nationality to a foreign husband.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has expressed concern regarding the large number of births which are not being registered, despite such registration being obligatory.
Since Cameroon is composed of over 200 different ethnic groups, with many different languages and customs, an increasing concern is the importance of autochthony over citizenship. It is becoming increasingly common that people identify first as being from the area from which the come than being citizens of the same nation, which has led to discrimination of Cameroonians by other Cameroonians from different ethnic areas.
The resolution of the conflict over the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula, which in 2006 was officially transferred from Nigeria to Cameroon territory, has led to the risk of statelessness. The people who left Bakassi to remain in Nigeria have been unable to vote in local elections, as they have no proof of residence in their new localities. Many who have remained in now-Cameroonian Bakassi also have not been able to obtain Cameroonian citizenship, also preventing them from enjoying full citizenship rights.
L’apatridie est la situation d’une personne qu’aucun Etat ne reconnaît comme étant son citoyen. Autrement dit, un apatride est une personne dépourvue de nationalité et qui, de ce fait, ne bénéficie de la protection d’aucun Etat. Des personnes se retrouvent exposées…
(Investir au Cameroun) – Le Haut-Commissariat pour les réfugiés (HCR), à travers sa sous-délégation à Maroua, a tenu du 7 au 8 septembre, des sessions de formation sur la prévention de l’apatridie à l’intention des autorités administratives, judiciaires et de…
Le HCR Cameroun, à travers sa Sous-délégation à Maroua, a tenu les 7 et 8 septembre 2017, un atelier de formation sur la Prévention de l’Apatridie à l’intention des autorités administratives, judiciaires et de police de la Région de l’Extrême-Nord.…
Adopted on 8 June 2016 by the Governments of Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger at the Regional Protection Dialogue on the crisis in the Lake Chad Basin, hosted by the Federal Government of Nigeria with the technical support of UNHCR.…
Editorial The government could do more to cushion the plight of Bakassi people Following heavy-handed laws and state-sponsored violence from the Cameroonian authorities, thousands of Nigerians have fled Abana, the headquarters of Bakassi Peninsula which is currently under the sovereignty…
Du 28 juin au 30 juin 2017 l’Etat du Cameroun a convié les camerounais de l’étranger au Forum de la diaspora baptisé «Fodias 2017». Durant ces assises qui ont eu lieu à Yaoundé dans la Région du Centre, le Quotidien…
By Anietie Akpan Calabar — About 97 Nigerians are feared killed as Cameroon Gendermes allegedly attacked residents of Bakassi over failure to pay a N100,000 boat levy.It was learnt that the attackers sacked mainly Nigerians from Akwa Ibom, Cross River…
Cameroonian authorities evict Bakassi indigenes from the oil rich peninsula over failure to pay taxes The Bakassi indigenes accuse the Cameroonian government of violating the agreements reached for ceding their ancestral home The indigenes call on the international community to…
Committee on the Rights of the Child 75th session, 15 May 2017–2 June 2017 Analysis of the Committee’s recommendations on the right to a nationality, statelessness and birth registration Including recommendations to Cameroon: One recommendation on elimination of discriminatory provisions…
ABUJA – Natives of Bakassi Peninsula have cried out to the international community for assistance to be fully integrated into either Nigeria or Cameroon, saying they are at present, nearly stateless. They said since the 2002 judgment of the International…