Anglophone Crises-Cameroon: Government announces Reforms in the Justice system

Measures taken  to bring solutions to the problems posed by Common law lawyers have been presented yesterday evening in Yaoundé by the Minister of State, Minister of Justice and keeper of the Seals, Laurent  Esso.

Amongst these solutions is the fact that the President of the Republic instructed the Ministry of Justice  to draw up and submit to  a bill amending the organization and functioning of the Supreme Court to include the Common Law Section.

He has also ordered a new assessment test of the mastery of common law by magistrates serving in the Northwest and South West Courts of Appeal.. On the basis of this second evaluation, the Head of State will proceed with the redeployment of the magistrates taking into account their mastery of the official language most used, without calling into question either the irreversible option of National integration or the career development of magistrates.

The revelation of Laurent Esso comes close to 6 months after angry Common law lawyers grounded courts in the Anglophone regions. Readers of the crisis believe the temperature appears too hot for government who is slowing coming to terms with the legitimate worries expressed by the lawyers. Concerns which were ignored by the Minister when these issues were forwarded in the Bamenda and Buea declarations of May and November 2015 emanating from the Common law Lawyers Conference.

Anglophones legal practitioners who saw their patience stretched took to the streets to echo their cry but were brutally molested in Bamenda and Buea. The Minister who publicly said there was no problem in the justice system appears to be coming back to reason with his tail between his legs.