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Cameroon’s Parliament is currently reviewing a bill that would allow the country to join two United Nations Conventions focused on the recognition and reduction of statelessness. If enacted, this legislation would enable stateless individuals in Cameroon to obtain legal identity documents.
The bill, recently presented to the National Assembly (Cameroon’s lower legislative chamber), seeks to authorize President Paul Biya to proceed with Cameroon’s accession to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
The government’s explanatory statement emphasizes the importance of addressing the needs of stateless individuals, who often find themselves in this situation through no fault of their own.
“Accession to these conventions will integrate stateless individuals into Cameroonian society and significantly reduce discrimination against them,” the statement reads. “These individuals represent valuable human capital.”
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated in 2017 that 120,000 people in Cameroon were at risk of being stateless.
The bill will first be examined by a committee before being debated in a plenary session of the National Assembly. If approved, it will then be sent to the Senate for further review. Once both chambers pass the bill, it will be presented to the President, who will have 15 days to sign it into law, as per Section 31 of Cameroon’s Constitution.
The 1954 Convention codifies the rights of stateless persons and governs their international protection. The 1961 Convention sets rules for the conferral and retention of citizenship to prevent and reduce statelessness.
Cameroon’s move to join these conventions reflects its commitment to ensuring legal identity for everyone within its borders. Many stateless individuals in Cameroon reside in the Bakassi Peninsula, where accessing legal identity documents is particularly challenging, especially for those of Nigerian origin who lost their citizenship following the transfer of the territory to Cameroon.
Cameroon joins several other African nations in taking steps to reduce statelessness, as highlighted during the 2024 ID4Africa Annual General Meeting, a move praised by the UNHCR. In February, African leaders received commendation from the UN agency for adopting the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, which addresses nationality and the eradication of statelessness in Africa.
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