The Cameroon Human Rights Commission (CHRC) has weighed in on the recurrent publication of nude images and videos of persons without their consent and urged competent state authorities to launch investigations and bring all suspects to book.
In a release issued Tuesday 6 July 2021 by the commission President, Prof. James Mouangue Kobila, captures some of the striking scenes recently posted on the social media in which people are shown naked without their consent and/or molested and expresses dismayed and deep concern of what it termed “irresponsible behavior and attitudes on the part of certain private individuals and public agents in search of notoriety”
The release comes days after nude video showing a group of naked young men and women being molested by law enforcement officers in a house in the Bonamoussadi neighbourhood in Douala, went viral on the social media. The men and women were reportedly involved in group sex. Ask seen in the viral video, Gendarme elements forced some of them to undress while filming them and forcing others to show their faces. Those who resisted were forced to comply by the elements.
The cases cited in the release from the CHRC included that of a young lady taken hostage and tied up by an individual, who, after having molested and stripped her naked with a knife, uttered death threats at her, the video of a young girl having sex with a journalist which went viral on the social media, that of a woman stripped naked, molested, and verbally abused by a group of individuals accusing her of theft of a mobile phone, the video of a that of several students involved in sex parties and recording ‘sextapes’ etc.
“The commission strongly condemns the recording and dissemination of indecent, shocking or violent images and videos o social media and other digital platforms, which seriously infrigue on human dignity, the right to privacy, the right to physical and moral integrity, the right to an image, the presumption of innocence, public decency and morality,” the release read in parts while urging culprits to be punished.
The CHRC welcomed action taken by the ministry of defence in the video involving Gendarmes in Douala but called for more actions. “The Commission encourages all competent authorities to investigate or pursue investigations, as the case may be, so that responsibilities are established, suspects brought before the competent courts and sanctions taken in accordance with legal provisions in force,” it urged.
It also called on parents to be more rigorous and vigilant in supervising their children, by instilling in them values likely to enable them to contribute effectively to the moral-being of the entire society and for Cameroonians to make responsible use of new information and communication technologies, including refraining
Worth noting is that section 74 paragraph 1 of the law of 21 December 2010 on cyber security and cybercrime, which punish with imprisonment for from 01 to 02 years and a fine of from 1 000 000 to 5 000 000 CFA francs.
By Doh Bertrand Nua
No comments:
Post a Comment