Female Empowerment and Family Minister says Cameroon has not legalised abortion and homosexuality

By Grace Ongey

Close to two months after the Catholic Church in Douala Archdiocese carried out a protest march against Cameroon’s ratification of the Maputo Protocol, and four months after the country ratified the Protocol, the government has finally denied the church’s position that by ratifying the Maputo Protocol, Cameroon has legalised abortion and homosexaulity, practices the Catholic Church abhors.

Cameroon’s Minister for Women Empowerment and the Family, Marie Thérèse Obama, finally made government’s position on the controversy public during a press conference in Yaounde, which the Ministers for Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, and Social Affairs, Catherine Bakang Mbock, attended. 

The Minister explained Cameroon ratified the Protocol on May 28, 2008 in line with its national strategy to promote the rights of the woman. “The Maputo Protocol ties in with the Head of State’s social policies and with his political orientation in the matter. Its ratification is another clear indication of the harmony that exists, and has always existed, between national policy and the views of the international community in development issues,” she explained.

However, article 14, clause 2(c) of the Maputo Protocol on Health and Reproductive Rights, the bone of contention, calls on governments to, “---protect the reproductive rights of women by authorising medical abortion in cases of sexual assault, rape, incest, and where the continued pregnancy endangers the mental and physical health of the mother or the life of the mother or the foetus”.

Minister Obama argued that, “In fact, article 337 of the Penal Code, which deals with abortion, severely sanctions this act, which can only be undertaken in the case of pregnancy resulting from rape, and this with the authorisation of the court, as well as for medical reasons as stipulated by article 339 of the Penal Code. In which case, no one can hide behind the Maputo Protocol to justify infanticide, or similar practices”.

The Catholic Church is pro-life and opposes any law that paves the way for the murder of defenceless unborn innocent children. It is in this light that while reacting to Article 14 of the Maputo Protocol, the Bishops of Cameroon meeting in Yaounde during their 34th plenary assembly, condemned Cameroon’s ratification of the protocol.

Douala Archbishop, Christian Cardinal Tumi, has said abortion is murder and unacceptable to the Church, whether it is for medical reasons, incest or rape as stipulated in the Maputo Protocol. He explained only God, the author of life, has the right to take away human life. The Douala Family Life Apostolate which, Mr. and Mrs. Irénée and Aïcha Marianne Kola head, has not only been spearheading the campaign against the protocol, but has also called on the government to repeal the protocol.

The Maputo Protocol was adopted in July 2003, in Maputo, Mozambique, to end all forms of discrimination against African women. The Catholic Church encourages practices that promote and defend the rights of women, but finds fault with the protocol’s stance on issues of reproductive health and same sex marriages, which she considers as an aberration.

An estimated 20,000 Christian and Moslem protestors took to the streets to protest against Cameroon’s ratification of the Maputo Protocol during which the Church submitted a letter outlining its position to the government.

It is really strange the Cameroon government is eager to score political points on an essentially moral question. Many believe the government is acting under pressure from international donors whose governments are behind such protocols.

Comments

[palker]

can one not say the maputo protocol is another way of introducing abortion through the back door?

[loveline]

is the protocol now part of laws in Cameroon

[generic viagra]

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