Pending an application which was tendered in February 2018, aimed at bringing to the attention of UN Member States, the worsening human rights situation in Ambazonia, the AGC (Ambazonia Governing Council) was invited to participate at this year’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR). This was made known in a public report concerning the recent UNHCR from the office of the AGC.

The UPR, a concise and unique process under which the human rights records of all member states are examined, deliberated upon, specific directives, improvements, and suggestions as concerns human rights.

Barrister Shy Ambe of MoRISC, alongside other experts on human rights, put together an advocacy report on behalf of the AGC, evaluating the human right situation in Ambazonia. Such a report gets forwarded to all permanent human rights missions of the UN in Geneva by the organizing team of the UPR pre-session which was held between April 10-13- said the AGC report.

Representing the AGC delegation during the Geneva Session was Eugene Ufoka whose planned confrontation with La Republique’s representative concerning human rights violations in the territory of Ambazonia was scrapped. The colonial government would rather not be seen as having any formal meeting at the UN with what they consider ”terrorist group” so they’d better not take the bait.

Having failed to prevent the AGC from being represented at the Pre-session, La Republique’s ambassador to Switzerland has come under fire from Yaounde for letting that happen under his watch. Channeling their complaints to the Chairlady of the event, La Republique would not risk sending the message that they sat in the midst of AGC delegation, mimicking a prerequisite for talks or better still engaging in dialogue between Cameroun and Ambazonia.

Not sure whether its objection would be taken into consideration, La Republique boycotted the event altogether. In an attempt to satisfy all parties, the organizing committee of the UPR allowed the content of the human rights report from the Ambazonia Governing Council to be presented through Central Africa’s Human Rights Defense Network but La Republique had hastily abandoned the event, casting itself on the international scene once more as a bad actor.

The report went further to stress that during the UPR pre-session, the AGC established bilateral ties with international NGOs that could facilitate them freely address human rights violations in an open forum, they also engaged in some briefings advocating for an Independent Ambazonia with a host of permanent human rights missions thereby creating awareness. The AGC says they will continue to mobilize the good people of Ambazonia to be the source of information thereby opening channels with UPR board for future briefings and forthcoming sessions.

The AGC report concluded that they pushed for the setting of a special rapporteur-charged to investigate the facts of crimes against humanity and crimes of war perpetrated by La Republique. Whether this becomes a reality is still to be seen.

Neba Benson,

BaretaNews Foreign Correspondent/Analyst