• Cameroon: LGBT Rights Workshop Shut Down
    Press release
    Apr 5, 2012
    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: Letter to the Minister of Justice Regarding Article 354
    Letter
    Dec 22, 2011
  • Cameroon: Stop Criminalizing Same-sex Conduct
    Letter
    Sep 30, 2011
    In the last six months, at least ten individuals in Yaoundé and Douala have been arrested under Article 347(a) of the Cameroonian Penal Code. This Article criminalises “sexual relations with a person of the same sex”.
  • Cameroon: Free Men Charged Under ‘Sodomy’ Law
    Press release
    Aug 17, 2011

    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
    Press release
    May 17, 2011
    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.
  • Appeal to Cameroon's Top Leaders to Overturn Conviction of Roger Jean-Claude Mbede
    Letter
    May 17, 2011
  • China: Arrests, Disappearances Require International Response
    Press release
    Mar 31, 2011
    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
    Press release
    Nov 4, 2010
    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.
  • Steave Nemande, Cameroon
    Defenders
    Oct 8, 2010
    Steave Nemande, president of the human rights organization Alternatives-Cameroun, speaks out against laws criminalizing homosexuality.
  • Human Rights Watch Honors Six Activists
    Press release
    Oct 4, 2010
    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.