IV 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 358 
Calling on the Government of Cameroon and armed groups to respect the 
human rights of all Cameroonian citizens, to end all violence, and to 
pursue a broad-based dialogue without preconditions to resolve the con-
flict in the Northwest and Southwest regions. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 7, 2019 
Ms. BASS (for herself, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. KIND, Mr. WALBERG, 
Mr. CASTRO of Texas, Mr. MEADOWS, Ms. OMAR, and Mr. WRIGHT) sub-
mitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Calling on the Government of Cameroon and armed groups 
to respect the human rights of all Cameroonian citizens, 
to end all violence, and to pursue a broad-based dialogue 
without preconditions to resolve the conflict in the North-
west and Southwest regions. 
Whereas many Anglophone Cameroonians have long felt 
marginalized by official actions and policies of the Gov-
ernment of Cameroon, including the abolishment of a fed-
eral form of government, which was the constitutional 
basis under which English-speaking Southern Cameroons 
entered into the union, and replacing it with a unitary 
state dominated by the Francophone majority; 
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Whereas, beginning in late 2016, protests organized by law-
yers, teachers, and students were violently repressed by 
the Government of Cameroon, leading to numerous 
deaths and imprisonments, including of journalists, 
teachers, lawyers, and an Anglophone judge on the coun-
try’s Supreme Court; 
Whereas the conflict escalated in late September and early 
October 2017, when Cameroonian security forces brutally 
cracked down on peaceful Anglophone civilian demonstra-
tors, resulting in dozens of deaths and leaving over 100 
injured; 
Whereas, in 2017, separatists launched a campaign to pres-
sure school officials in the Northwest and Southwest 
Anglophone regions to go on strike as part of a boycott 
against the Government of Cameroon, and reportedly 
began burning school buildings, threatening education of-
ficials with violence if they did not comply with a boycott, 
and kidnapping for ransom children and teachers who de-
fied the boycott; 
Whereas numerous human rights monitors have documented 
armed separatists killing traditional leaders and targeting 
civilians, including women, children, and the elderly, who 
are perceived to be supporting or working with the Gov-
ernment of Cameroon, and reports indicate that armed 
separatists have killed scores of security force personnel; 
Whereas the security forces of the Government of Cameroon 
have attacked medical facilities and health workers in the 
Northwest and Southwest regions; 
Whereas numerous credible reports from human rights mon-
itors, including the United Nations High Commissioner 
for Human Rights, have documented the excessive use of 
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force by government security forces against Cameroonian 
civilians living in the Anglophone regions, including the 
burning of villages, the use of live ammunition against 
protestors, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, sexual 
abuse, and killing of civilians, including women, children, 
and the elderly; 
Whereas the Department of State has expressed serious con-
cern over the manner in which the government has used 
force to unlawfully restrict the rights to free expression 
and peaceful protest that are protected under the 
Cameroonian Constitution and international law; 
Whereas the government has charged journalists, social activ-
ists, and members of political opposition parties with ter-
rorism-related crimes and prosecuted them in military 
tribunals; 
Whereas the Government of Cameroon arrested opposition 
leader Maurice Kamto and roughly 150 members of the 
Cameroon Renaissance Movement party following peace-
ful protests on January 26, 2019, charging them with 
crimes that could result in the death penalty and han-
dling their cases at the Military Tribunal even though 
they are civilians; 
Whereas the Government of Cameroon continued to place 
bans on Cameroon Renaissance Movement’s attempts to 
hold peaceful protests, and civil society reported that se-
curity forces interfered with MRC registration processes 
in Yaounde´, Douala, and Bafoussam in February 2019; 
Whereas the Government of Cameroon has repeatedly re-
stricted freedoms of expression by shutting down the 
internet, harassing and detaining journalists, refusing li-
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censes to independent media, and intensifying political 
attacks against the independent press; 
Whereas the United Nations Office for the Coordination of 
Humanitarian Affairs stated in April 2019 that more 
than 530,000 people were internally displaced in areas 
affected by the Anglophone conflict; 
Whereas the Office of the United Nations High Commis-
sioner for Refugees reports that more than 32,000 
Cameroonian refugees have registered in Nigeria; 
Whereas the Department of State has expressly called on the 
Government of Cameroon to respect the rights, including 
the right to due process, of 47 Cameroonians forcibly re-
turned in January 2018 from Nigerian custody to 
Cameroonian authorities, many of whom had reportedly 
submitted asylum claims in Nigeria; and 
Whereas ten of the 47 Cameroonians forcibly returned from 
Nigeria now face charges before a military court punish-
able by the death penalty, while the other thirty-seven re-
portedly remain in detention without charge: Now, there-
fore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) strongly condemns the abuses committed in 
Cameroon’s Anglophone regions by the Government 
of Cameroon security forces and armed groups, in-
cluding extrajudicial killings and detentions, the use 
of force against nonviolent civilians and protestors, 
and violations of the freedoms of press, expression, 
and assembly; 
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(2) affirms that the United States continues to 
hold the Government of Cameroon responsible for 
upholding the rights of all citizens, regardless of po-
litical views or beliefs or the regions in which they 
reside, in accordance with Cameroon’s international 
obligations and Cameroon’s own Constitution; 
(3) urges all parties, including political opposi-
tion groups, to exercise restraint and to ensure that 
protests remain peaceful; 
(4) urges the Government of Cameroon to— 
(A) initiate broad-based dialogue without 
preconditions and make a credible, full faith ef-
fort to work with religious and community lead-
ers in the Anglophone region to address griev-
ances and seek nonviolent solutions to resolve 
conflict and constitutional reforms that would 
protect minority concerns, such as reconsti-
tuting a Federal system; 
(B) follow through on the initiatives devel-
oped to address grievances, including the Com-
mission of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, 
the Ministry of Decentralization, and the Na-
tional Commission for Disarmament, Demobili-
zation, Reintegration, that currently offer no 
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visible evidence of having played a constructive 
role in resolving the crisis; 
(C) respect the fundamental rights of all 
Cameroonian citizens, including political activ-
ists and journalists; 
(D) ensure that any security operations 
are conducted in accordance with international 
human rights standards, including efforts to en-
sure security forces only use force under appro-
priate circumstances; 
(E) transparently investigate all allegations 
of human rights violations committed in the 
Anglophone regions and take the necessary 
measures to prevent arbitrary detention, tor-
ture, enforced disappearances, deaths in cus-
tody, and inhumane prison conditions; 
(F) promptly charge or release all those 
detained in the context of the Anglophone cri-
sis, including the Cameroonians forcibly re-
turned from Nigeria, and ensure that any fu-
ture detainees are treated with due process, in 
line with Cameroon’s penal code; 
(G) allow unfettered access to humani-
tarian and health care workers in accordance 
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with humanitarian principles of humanity, neu-
trality, impartiality, and independence; 
(H) release the leaders and members of the 
Cameroon Renaissance Movement party who 
were arrested following their peaceful protests, 
and ensure that this party, like others, can par-
ticipate unfettered in upcoming municipal, par-
liamentary, and regional elections; 
(I) release human rights defenders, civil 
society activists, political prisoners, journalists, 
trade unionists, teachers, and any other citizens 
who have been arbitrarily arrested and detained 
without trial or charge; 
(J) ensure that detainees are treated fairly 
and humanely, with proper judicial proceedings, 
including a registry of those detained by the 
Cameroonian security forces, and with full ac-
cess to legal resources; and 
(K) ensure that Cameroon’s antiterrorism 
legislation is used only to prosecute offenses 
that would be considered acts of terrorism 
under international legal standards, and cease 
to use this legislation to sanction activities that 
are protected by national and international 
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