Cameroon: Human Rights Defender, Barrister Agbor Balla rejects SDF Shadow Cabinet Appointment as President of the judicial affairs unit
2 min read
Barrister Agbor Balla, the President of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa and the award winning human rights defender in a letter addressed to the Secretariat of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), a Political party in Cameroon have rejected the appointment into the Shadow Cabinet by the said party. On 16 June 2022, the Human Rights Defender was named by the Chairman of SDF, Ni John Fru Ndi as the president of the Judiciary Affairs unit. The highly contested decision by some members of the SDF party is yet to settle.
Agbor Balla who recently won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and one of the frontline human rights defender in Cameroon, has however in the letter to the SDF stated that his current priority is to promote and defend the human rights of these millions of victims who otherwise are being brushed aside by current politics in Cameroon.
Though He rejected the appointment by the Political Party, Barrister Agbor Balla appreciated the Chairman for his continuous contributions to Cameroon democracy. He stated, ‘The political history of Cameroon cannot be written without a special place for yourself, your party the SDF and its unsung heroes and heroines. Even the minor improvements in our struggling democratic practice over the last three decades are largely attributable to the vibrancy and leadership of the SDF. Thank you for your service.’
He also reminded the Chairman of SDF that times have changed greatly from the 1990s and that there are new challenges which warrants new solutions. ‘The new challenges our people face require new solutions and new approaches. When teachers joined lawyers of Anglophone extraction to protest against the status quo, our fight for the respect of Anglophone rights took me to prison unjustly. For six years now, my people, your people, our people are suffering grave violations of their human rights each day in a brutal conflict which partisan politics failed to avert and has this far proven unable and unwilling to resolve.’
The human rights defender also calls on the Chairman to to continue raising his voice for all victims of Gross Human Rights violations in Cameroon.
Berinyuy Cajetan is the founder and publisher of Human Rights and Legal Research Centre (HRLRC) since 2017. He has intensive experience in strategic communications for Civil Society Organizations, campaign and advocacy, and social issues. He has an intensive experiencing in human rights monitoring, documentation and reporting.
