• Cameroon: LGBT Rights Workshop Shut Down
    Apr 5, 2012
    Press release
    Cameroonian authorities on March 27, 2012, illegally shut down a human rights workshop in Yaoundé that was to include discussion of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and arrested one of the workshop organizers. The action violated rights to freedom of assembly and expression under both Cameroonian and international law.
  • Cameroon: Free Men Charged Under ‘Sodomy’ Law
    Aug 17, 2011
    Press release
    Three men returning from a bar last month in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, were detained by police because two of them appeared feminine. The three were jailed on July 25, 2011, for one week and were tortured and otherwise abused by police during this time, according to a Cameroonian civil society group that has been working on their behalf.
  • Cameroon: ‘Sodomy’ Law Violates Basic Rights
    May 17, 2011
    Press release
    The March arrest, conviction, and sentencing of Roger Jean-Claude Mbede to three years in prison for being homosexual is a gross violation of Mbede’s rights to freedom of expression and equality guaranteed by the Cameroonian constitution, Alternatives-Cameroun, Association pour la Defense de l’Homosexualitè (ADEFHO), and Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Cameroon’s top leaders.
  • China: Arrests, Disappearances Require International Response
    Mar 31, 2011
    Press release
    The European Union, the United States, and other governments should call for the United Nations Human Rights Council to review the deteriorating human rights situation in China.
  • Cameroon: Same-Sex Relations Bring Attacks, Arrests
    Nov 4, 2010
    Press release
    Cameroonians are attacked by police, politicians, the media, and even their own communities if they are suspected of having sexual relations with a person of the same sex.
  • Human Rights Watch Honors Six Activists
    Oct 4, 2010
    Press release
    Six relentless and courageous advocates of human rights will be honored in November 2010, with the prestigious Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism. All six have faced substantial threats of violence or imprisonment, but they continue to speak out and to work to create a world in which people live free of violence, discrimination, and oppression.
  • Cameroon: Decriminalize Same-Sex Acts
    Aug 19, 2010
    Press release
    Cameroon should decriminalize consensual sexual acts between adults of the same sex.
  • West Africa: Stop Trafficking in Child Labor
    Apr 1, 2003
    Press release
    West African governments are failing to address a rampant traffic in child labor that could worsen with the region’s growing AIDS crisis.
  • Rights Group Calls on Cameroonian President to Respect Freedom of Press
    Jun 2, 1998
    Press release
    In a letter sent to the president of Cameroon today, Human Rights Watch welcomed his call to resolve the case of a wrongfully-imprisoned journalist.