Child protection
Children are at great risk of all forms of violence in Cameroon and need urgent protection.
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The solutions
UNICEF supports the Government of Cameroon's efforts to create an environment that protects the rights of children by strengthening legal and policy frameworks and national institutions, implementing prevention mechanisms at the community level, and by expanding the response to detect, prevent, respond to and address all child protection issues affecting children in Cameroon, including harmful practices, violence against children, exploitation, migration, and the specific protection needs of children in both development and humanitarian contexts.
Based- on the data-informed analysis, UNICEF and its partners agreed to focus the Country Programme Program priorities on deprived children, including adolescents, especially girls and the most disadvantaged. Thus, in the area of Child Protection, the Country Programme endeavour will strive to ensure that children and adolescents have their birth certificates, are protected, and protect themselves from violence, abuse, exploitation, and harmful practices, especially child marriage, including in emergency contexts.
To reach the children most in need of protection, UNICEF works closely with relevant Government institutions (the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Women’s PromotionEmpowerment and the Family, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Decentralization and Local Development; General Delegation general for National Security; the Ministry of Public Health; the Ministry of Secondary Education, and the Ministry of Basic Education; theMinistry of Defence, Ministry of Defense; the Ministry of YouthsYouth Affairs and Civic Education; the Ministry of LaborLabour and Social Insurance; theSecurity, National DDR Commission; Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Committee National Institute of Statistics; the National and the National Civil Status Registration Office), the lower chamber of the Parliament National Assembly as well as partners including Vital Strategies and World Bank.
Birth registration
1 in 3 children in Cameroon is deprived of a legal identity
From April 26 to 27, 2024, UNICEF, MINDDEVEL and BUNEC organised the first Mayors Forum on Birth Registration in Cameroon. To address the issue of deprivation from the right to identity, UNICEF and its partners challenge Cameroon's mayors to create new registration points in health centres and town halls, and to register children without legal identity in elementary school.
View the full campaign webpage
Ending violence against children
In November 2024, with the invaluable support of UNICEF and its partners, Cameroon became the sixth country in West and Central Africa to adopt the Child Protection Case Management Information System. A database for secure case management, monitoring of vulnerable children and family reunification.
UNICEF is committed to strengthening the child protection system through interventions such as promoting positive parenting to prevent violence and abuse against children, including sexual and gender-based violence within the family and at the community level; supporting community-based child protection mechanisms (RECOPE) to identify and refer cases of violence, abuse and exploitation. Building the capacity of local actors to deliver child protection case management services; Developing life skills among adolescents (girls and boys) to improve their safety and understanding of how to address the underlying causes of violence, abuse, exploitation and child marriage.
Child protection in emergencies
UNICEF and its partners provide services to children in emergencies, addressing various challenges including family separation, emotional distress, gender-based violence (such as child marriage, survival sex, sexual violence, and exploitation), child labour, child recruitment by armed groups, killing and maiming, lack of identification documents, and multiple displacements.
Harmful practices
Several actions are being carried out with UNICEF support to prevent child marriage: strengthening the mobilisation of the community (traditional and religious leaders, including queens) to better prevent child marriage and other harmful practices affecting girls; building the capacity of local actors to provide services to survivors of child marriage, including psychosocial support, legal support, school reintegration/vocational training, economic empowerment ; Advocacy for the harmonisation of the provisions of the Penal Code with those of the Civil Code and the 1981 Ordinance that are still applicable about the legal age of marriage; Support for life-skills activities for adolescent girls and boys to improve their safety and understanding of how to address the underlying causes of child marriage; Establishment of a system for the monitoring and reporting of child marriage.
The challenges
Violence against children is one of the most striking scourges of modern times, including in Cameroon. The 2018 DHS revealed that 7.7% of women aged 15 to 19 and 2.9% of men aged 15 to 49 have survived sexual violence. The vulnerability of children to various forms of violence, abuse and exploitation is increasingly recognised as a major and particularly serious protection issue. Children are directly or indirectly confronted with violence between partners, which has an impact on their emotional and psychological well-being. Violence, abuse and exploitation occur most often in the home, at school and in the community.
Child marriage remains a serious problem in Cameroon. The rate of women aged 20 to 24 married before the age of 18 is 29.8% (DHS, 2018). The practice is more widespread in four regions: Adamawa, East, Far North, and North. It affects both urban and rural areas, with a high prevalence in rural areas.
According to the MICS4, 47% of children aged between 5 and 17 are involved in "child labour" and 40% work in hazardous conditions.
