full version - World Organisation Against Torture

CameroonPrisons are overcrowded. According to ACAT Littoral, there are only 40beds and 2 showers for 85 female prisoners in the female prison ofDouala.In the calendar years 2000 and 2001, the Medical Foundation for the Careof Victims of Torture in London documented evidence of torture in a totalof 60% refugees from Cameroon. Of these, 27 were women. Of the 27Cameroonian women receiving treatment by the Medical Foundation, 25women had been raped by agents of the Cameroonian State and/or whilein custody of the State. 48 Women also variously reported to the MedicalFoundation for the Care of Victims of Torture that they were housednaked in a mixed cell, stripped naked and forced to dance, their bodiesinsulted and mocked, forced to stand in the sun naked, or stripped andsexually assaulted. 49The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture also reportedthat one woman was raped repeatedly despite being pregnant. She wasreleased from detention when she suffered a miscarriage in her cell.Another women was detained with her young child who had suffered aserious head injury during their arrest. After a few weeks in detentionthey were released in the middle of the night. The child died three dayslater. 503.4 Threats against Women Human Rights DefendersMembers of the Christian’s Action for the Abolition of Torture (ACATCameroon, a member of the OMCT SOS-Torture network) in Doualacontinue to be under surveillance and constant pressure from the Stateauthorities. Their movements are monitored by individuals who watchthe front door of the organisation’s premises, and the telephone is stilltapped.Ms Madeleine Afite, Co-ordinator of ACAT Littoral, received anonymousphone calls at home and on her cell phone in 2002. In April of that year,she was held at the airport by a police officer who berated her for an hourand confiscated her papers to intimidate her. In the end the papers werereturned by another policeman, who told her in mocking tones to go andlodge a complaint wherever she liked. 51131