Sovereign states protect human rights by
adhering to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and promoting
human rights at international level. Most democratic states tend to support
political and civil rights in their foreign policy by allocating an annual
budget. The budget is directed toward local and international NGO’s promoting
human rights all over the world. NGOs are the results of awakening of our
societies and democratization of Human rights in our modern world. NGOs are
observers and first to report abuses. They are also actors participating in the
promotion and implementation of foundations to prevent human cruelties. Taking
into consideration all those entities. Is our world safer? Under what conditions can we consider a state
that ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as human rights abuser?
What available tools the international community use to deter human rights
abusers? Is Cameroon considered as human rights violator?
States may be
considered as human rights abusers if they neglect to protect their own
citizens or even immigrants from discrimination, displacement, or systematic
killing. When a state is intentionally falling to protect its citizens. The
state is violating human rights. In this context, should we consider the nine
states that did not sign the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights as unquestionable? (Gjelten,2018) Can we hold them accountable to the
same standards as the countries who signed the declaration? Nowadays, the human
rights abuses are flagrant. Every state is dealing with its own cultural,
ethnical, economic, and political challenges. However, its clear that the selectivity
of cases that reach mainstream media are related to the horror of the abuses.
Would a private citizen or militia be carrying a mass murder equivalent to
soldiers torching a village and killing its inhabitants? Who is responsible in
this case to reinforce human rights abuses? Is it the state? The UN? NGOs? Most
frequent human rights abuses happen in poor countries. For instance, Cameroon
has been struggling since independence with a divided population preference for
spoken languages. Cameroon is a bilingual country. While most of the country was
occupied by France. The southern region known as Ambazonia was occupied by The
British Empire (Lee,O'Grady, 2019). French-Cameroon
gained independence in 1960 and British-Cameroon had to wait till 1961. Since most
Cameroonians lived under French occupation. The official language of the
country is French. This specific matter created tension between the French
speaking regions controlling the country and a minority of English-speaking Cameroonians.
What makes this conflict different from the rest of African conflicts is the
language dilemma. It is hard to understand why ancients united tribes in
Cameroon would fight after independence over the official foreign language.
Should they not choose their native language and discard the colonial languages?
This is a clear fact that colonial powers may had left Africa, but their
influence is persistent. The other reason for the bloody conflict is that Ambazonia
is rich in oil. According to the self-declared Amazonian Foreign minister: “Cameroon makes $10m a day from crude oil
from Ambazonia”. The conflict is a Deja vu of South Sudan and Sudan long lasting
civil war. Even if Ambazonia gain independence it will just be the beginning of
chaos in a region already afflicted by separatists using gorilla war tactics
and Boko Haram terrorists. Recent reports estimate that Boko Haram insurgency
has displaced 2.5 million people in Cameroon, Tchad, Niger and Nigeria (Gruenbaum,2018). Those separatists are
holding an entire population as hostages and will not accept any compromise
beside independence. Cameroon is fighting a fair war against rebels terrorizing
the population in Ambazonia. In any war, mistakes happen, and the government of
Cameroon should lunch an independent investigation to hold their soldiers
accountable for any atrocities. Penalizing Cameroon by stopping the military
cooperation with the US military will be a big mistake. Boko Haram is not only
menacing Cameroon, yet the entire Sahel region. Strong cooperation between the
US and Cameroon is a must to restrain Boko Haram’s expansion in the region (Paquette,2019). In my opinion,
stopping the economic cooperation between US and Cameroon is useless and it
will not change much. Cameroon’s economy depends mainly on oil. According to
Jamestown Foundation: “Cameroon is
the twelfth-largest oil producer in Africa, with estimated reserves of roughly
200 million barrels”. If the US close its markets. Europe and china will be glad to
buy Cameroonian products and sell arms to Cameroon.
In the actual Economical and geopolitical context. I do not see any country leading the way in human rights. All Western powers are being pragmatic by not applying sanctions or condemning any military conflict if they can sell arms. China is implanted in Africa and waiting for the opportunity to off balance the power of former colonial powers (Roberts, 2019). It is sad to see that human rights are becoming a card played by Western countries whenever they need to topple a regime not following their directives. Finally, in the light of the recent race to vaccinate the world. Knowing that four countries: US, Great Britain, China, India possesses 50% of all vaccines available in the world. Should we consider the right to access to vaccines as a human right. Is it not the right to live?
References
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