Le régime juridique des étrangers au Cameroun

SECTION 2 - THE COMMUNITY PROTECTION FROM ABROAD

It is about the guarantee of the basic rights of the nationals of the Member States of the regional and sous-régionales institutions, which pursue common goals following the example freedom of movement of the people, capital, goods and services.

Cameroun left to such institutions : it is more precisely about the African Union (Section 1), of the Economic and Monetary Community of Africa Centrale (Section 2), as well as bilateral agreements (Section 3).

Paragraph 1 - The role of the African Union (UA)41(*)

Cameroun was member of the late Organization of African Unity (OAU) created in 1963, which pursued several goals among which the protection of fundamental freedoms of the human person. He is from now on member of the U.A which replaced it. Its Deed of partnership was adopted on July 11, 2000 and came into effect on May 26, 2001^42(*).

The UA took again the noble ideals of its devancière. She indeed committed herself applying the rules founded under the aegis of the OAU for purposes to take care of the integrity from abroad according to an at the same time general process (A) and special (B).

A) General rules relating to the rights from abroad in Africa

We take for reference the African Charter of the humans right and of the people adopted on June 27, 1981 to the 18th Session of the Conference of the Heads of State and Government of the OAU and entry into force on October 21, 1986^43(*). It puts forward the rights and duties of the individuals and people of the continent. It returns to the States to conform to its regulations. It was ratified by Cameroun on October 21, 1986.

Two principal provisions concern the foreigners directly. Initially, article 12 draws contours of the freedom of circulation and residence inside a State as well as the right to leave any territory. It fixes the rules relating to expulsion and prohibits collective expulsions. In the second place, article 23 (2) (A) requires that the States take care that a profit individual of the right of asylum does not direct subversive activities.

We can also quote the African Charter of the rights and the good being of the child adoptive on July 11, 1990 by the 26e Conférence of the Heads of State and government of the OAU and entry into force since November 29, 1999^44(*). Ratified by Cameroun on September 05, 1997, it guarantees the rights and preferences of all the children of the area. Its article 23 applies more particularly to the taken refuge children. It requires that the States ensure their protection, assists them and takes care of the respect of their basic rights.

Beyond this general normative framework, principles were adopted especially for the refugees in Africa. While conforming to the above mentioned Convention of Geneva of 1951, the regional instrument initiates very original means of protection of the rights of the taken refuge people.

B) The characteristic of the African right of the refugees

The fundamental text which regulates the condition of the refugees in the area is the Convention of the O.U.A governing the aspects specific to the problems of the refugees in Africa. It was adopted on September 10, 1969 and came into effect on June 20, 1974^45(*). The signature of Cameroun took place on October 09, 1969, its ratification on July 09, 1975 and the deposit of its instruments of ratification on October 1, 1986^46(*).

In its analyzes, Rene DEGNI SEGUIdémontre^47(*) that the Convention of the OAU extended (1) and reinforced (2) the statute of the refugee in Africa.

1) Extension of the concept of refugee

The Convention of the OAU gives a definition of the denser and detailed refugee that the Convention of Geneva of 1951. Indeed, it devotes two criteria of eligibility to him : first is drawn from « persecution » and the second, of « violence ».

On the one hand, the African legal instrument almost completely takes again the contents of the articles first of above mentioned Convention and its Protocol. Indeed, in article 1 (1), the Convention of 1969 also defines the refugee as the person who flees her country of origin and cannot or does not want to go back there by fear to be persecuted because of its race, her religion, its nationality, its membership of a certain social group or its political opinions. Moreover, on the basis of final provision of this subparagraph, Convention is directly applicable to the stateless people having same fears as the refugees.

In addition, it widens the concept of refugee by covering other people not protected by the Convention of Geneva. Thus, under the terms of its paragraph 2, this one is heard as any person who flees her usual residence because of an aggression, of an external occupation, a foreign domination or events seriously disturbing the law and order in a part or the totality of her country of origin or of the country of which it with nationality.

Through these two criteria, Convention crosses an important step in the protection of the refugees bus in addition to the victims of totalitarianism, it puts under its protective sunshade those of the civil wars and the conflicts. Its contribution is all the more appreciable as it extends to their statute.

* ⁴¹ The existence of the African Economic Community (ECA), created in 1991 by the treaty of Abuja, integrated into the UA and which aims at the integration of Africa in 2028, allows us, within the framework of this analysis, to define the UA as a Community institution in the direction where the right generally hears it. In other words, it is about an institution which preaches the principle of freedom of movement of the people, the capital, the goods and the services.

* ⁴² SCHUTTER (Olivier) and others, COp Cit, pp.737 with 747.

* ⁴³ Idem, pp.698 with 713.

* ⁴⁴ SCHUTTER (Olivier) and others, COp Cit, pp. 721 to 736.

* ⁴⁵ Idem, pp.692 with 697.

* ⁴⁶ Lawyers committee for human rights: African exodus, refugees crisis, human rights and the 1969 OAU Convention, A carryforward off the lawyers committee for human rights, S.V., July 1995, p. 263.

* ⁴⁷ DEGNI SEGUI (Rene),  «  The action of the African institutions as regards refugees  », IN French Company for the international law, conference of right of asylum refugee and Caens-, COp cit, pp.229-230.