LAW Cameroon is a registered NGO in 2008, after witnessing an adverse finding of supreme cases involving violence against Women and girls in Cameroon which drastically increased during the ongoing conflict in Cameroon.
LAW Cameroon has since then worked towards creating a society where the vulnerable and marginalized group (Women, girls, widows and the disabled) are empowered and equal to their male counterpart. LAW Cameroon focuses on Women and girls’ rights, while moving towards the creation of a peaceful society, empowered, who will protect and prevent women and girls from any form of violence.
Mission of LAW Cameroon
LAW Cameroon’s Mission is to prevent violence against women and girls as a gender-based phenomenon and to foster gender equality.
LAW Cameroon’s goal is to support women to achieve their full potentials; to encourage, enable and facilitate their active involvement in business, employment, learning and community life.
Vision of LAW Cameroon
LAW Cameroon’s vision is to create a better everyday life to women and girls free from violence, and living in a peaceful environment.
Background / History
LAW stands for Libra Association for Widows; it is a non-governmental Organisation (NGO. LAW was founded in Cameroon, in 2008, and works in the field of human rights. The main objectives of LAW are to fight against Gender-based violence in our communities and to empower women and girls. LAW’s mission amongst other things is to enhance and promote the welfare of women/girls and children, promote the principles and aims of the United Nations in their legal and social aspects, and promote the aims and principles of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
LAW Cameroon works in the field of human rights because the death of a husband means stigma, destitution, and abuse for many Cameroonian widows who are some of the world’s poorest widows. Widows in Cameroon often have to fight abuse and maltreatment with almost no help from anyone. Many widows in Cameroon report the community often considers them to be the prime suspect of their husband’s death and are made to sleep on the floor, on their late husband’s grave, refused visitors, and denied the chance to take a bath for several months, lock up in a room, denied the chance to leave the house, even when their livelihoods depend on it.
LAW Cameroon was also inspired by the United Nations’ international widows’ day in June 2005 to mark the social stigmatisation and economic deprivation faced by many of the poorest of the estimated 245 million widows worldwide.
As in many developing countries, especially those in conflict and post-conflict situations like Cameroon, the status of widows, and wives of those who forcibly disappeared or missing is often ignored. Yet widows and their children, particularly their daughters, suffer the most discrimination and violence, direct and indirect, from state and non-state actors, and this discrimination, often results to extreme poverty, marginalisation, and exposure to violence. In this regard, LAW Cameroon makes the condition of widows in Cameroon visible so that it can be addressed.
Membership
LAW’s membership consists of individual members, affiliate organisations, law students, patrons, and honorary members.
Our Affiliations
LAW Cameroon is in partnership with FIDA Cameroon (International Federation of Women Lawyers, Cameroon) and as a result of the research they carried out over the years, it was quite clear that despite the several modern laws in the Statute Book that purport to protect widows from deprivation of their rights, and criminalise acts of violence against them, the government of Cameroon has done nothing to implement or monitor these laws.