Le régime juridique des étrangers au Cameroun

Paragraph 2 - The legal statute from abroad in comparison with the constitution

In general, the company was always organized so that the various groups which make it up cannot act there with their own way. Indeed, the community life must be governed by a whole of principles to prevent that it reigns there the law of the jungle. This is why the foreigner, like any other human person, is titular rights (A) and held with obligations (B) to Cameroun.

A) Rights

It is in particular a question of studying the extent of the privileges whose the immigrant enjoys on the unit the own territory, so much in the plans civil and political (1) that on the levels economic, social and cultural (2).

1) Civil laws63(*) and political

Article 4 (2) of the PIDCP specifies that each individual is holder of rights described as « intangible » ; they are the rights non-dérogeables even in period of war. Most important of them is the right to the life because it belongs to the paramount rights^64(*) of the human person. It is, indeed, a right without which the realization of all the others is impossible. We can, moreover, quote the prohibition of torture and the treatments inhuman or degrading, the prohibition of slavery and the constraint, the respect of the legality of the offenses and the sorrows. By deduction and under the terms of the principle of nondiscrimination, the foreigners also have this privilege.

Beyond these principles indérogeables, the non-national ones profit from other freedoms. For this reason, the preamble to the constitution of 1996 recognizes, explicitly, the exercise of the freedoms of expression, religion, thought, demonstration, communication, press, meeting, association as well as trade-union freedom and the right to strike for all without any discrimination. Moreover, the freedom of going and coming there is also devoted. Many States fell besides under logic of its constitutionalization. We can quote the case of the totality of the Member States of the under-area of the gulf of Guinea^65(*). This freedom is proclaimed in the constitutional preambles to various States in particular Gabon (constitution of 1991), the Republic of Congo (constitution of January 2002), Nigeria (constitution of 1999), the Central African Republic (constitution of 1994 revised in 2005).

Concerning the access from abroad to justice, the majority of the systems give to the judges the mission of protecting the personal freedoms against the attacks suitable for affect them^66(*). Also, the operation of the Cameronian legal system rests as a whole on many principles of which that of « equality in front of justice ». This principle rises from articles 10 from the DUDH and 14 (1) PIDCP. It means that all the justiciable ones, without any discrimination, must be treated on the same foot and be judged in the compliance with the rules of procedure and be basic. This principle fits besides in the logic of the preamble to the constitution of Cameroun, which affirms that « all the human beings have rights inalienable and crowned without any discrimination ».

In addition to all these freedoms, the immigrants also profit from the rights of the second generation.

* ⁶³ There are classically three categories of rights in the nomenclature of the humans right  : rights known as of «  the first generation  » are the civil laws and political  ; rights known as of «  the second generation  » are the economic, social and cultural rights  ; rights known as of «  the third generation  » or  «  rights of solidarity  » are for example  right to a healthy environment, peace and the development. For more precise details, to consult on a purely illustrative basis, public MORANGE (Jean) IN Humans right and freedoms, 2nd edition, Paris, PUF, 1989.

* ⁶⁴ MARGUENAU (Jean-Pierre), European Court of the humans right, Paris, Dalloz, 1997, p. 56.

* ⁶⁵ DONFACK SOKENG (Léopold), COp. Cit., p.1. The author explains that the expression  «  under-area of the gulf of Guinea  » poses some problems related to its indetermination. Indeed, it does not correspond at an institution of regional integration to the direction where hears usually the legal theory of integration. (cf preceding chapter, Section 2). Generally, this under-area gathers, in first, the only States located at the bottom of the gulf  with knowknowing Cameroun, Gabon, Guinea Equatoriale and Nigeria mainly because they are directly open on the Atlantic Ocean starting from this point. As a second, it includes other Member States of the CEEAC and CEMAC of which the main part of the exchanges is done starting from the gulf  ; it is in fact about Chad, of the Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

* ⁶⁶ WACHSMAN (Patrick), Freedoms Public, Paris, Dalloz, 1996, p. 107.