Cameroon - March 2025

On 5 March, Cameroon’s Bar Association (CBA) launched a three-day strike over what it described as ‘recurrent violence’ by the country’s security forces against lawyers. In its statement announcing the strike, the Bar Association referred to two recent cases, the first of which was brought to light by videos posted to social media on 1 March, capturing what it described as ‘police officers carrying out violence and other degrading and inhumane acts on a lawyer.’ The previous day, the CBA had been informed that another lawyer had been unlawfully detained by authorities in a bid to force him to retract a statement denouncing violations of his clients’ rights. Similar incidents were reported in September and November 2024 and the CBA claimed at the time that attacks by the police and gendarmerie against lawyers were becoming the norm. 

Sources: Conférence Internationale des Barreaux/Cameroon Bar Association, Jeune Afrique, Human Rights Watch