Southern Cameroons and The United Nations Organisation

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2016 in the subject Politics - Region: Africa, grade: B1, University of Aberdeen, course: INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW, language: English, abstract: This paper takes a critical look at a particular aspect of the decolonization of the former Trust Territory of Southern Cameroons. It focuses on the role of the United Nations Organization (UNO) in the application of article 76 b of the UN Charter and United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1608 XV of April 21 1961 on the Future of The Trust Territory of the Cameroons under the United Kingdom Administration. The work argues that the UNO, failed to supervise the proper transition of the Territory from a Trusteeship Province into an Independent or Self-Governing State as per the Charter and Resolutions provisions. The paper examines the transition of the territory from 1954 when it gained quasi-regional autonomy, through the plebiscite, federation with the independent Republic of Cameroon from 1961 to 1972 when the two became a unitary state. The conduct of the Cameroun Republic thereafter, which in 1984, regained the name acquired at independence with the peoples and territory of Southern Cameroons now part of the State. This act it is argued was a logical obliteration of the identity of Southern Cameroons. It concludes that the decolonization failed with recommendations including a referral to the International Court of Justice.

Holder of an LL.M in Human Rights Law from the University of Aberdeen- Scotland, Stanislaus Ajong is a Chevening Scholar and an International Human Rights Lawyer with wide experience in Cameroon and Africa. Called to the Cameroon Bar in 1999, he founded and is presently Managing Partner of Security Law Firm situated in Tiko, South West Region of Cameroon. Ajong has handled a number of Communications before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights against the Republic of Cameroon and the Federal Republic of Nigeria on behalf of the people of Southern Cameroons in their quest for the respect of the right to self-determination. A Lecturer of Human Rights and Development at graduate and undergraduate level in the Pan African Institute for Development in Africa - PAID-WA between 2010 -2013 he equally facilitated two legal clinics in Kenya on the right to Education and Employment in Africa. The author had his secondary education in the Bilingual Grammar School, Molyko -Buea before proceeding to the University of Yaounde where he obtained the First Degree in Law. The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) awarded him the highly prestigious Chevening Scholarship in 2015 leading to the Master's degree and this Publication. He was President of the Fako Lawyers Association (FAKLA) - the Umbrella organisation for Lawyers of the Cameroon Bar Association resident in Fako Division from 2010-2015. The Association partnered with other bodies during this time to fight for the respect of the rights of vulnerable persons, particularly, instituting proceedings on behalf of persons detained indefinitely awaiting trial and also for the decriminalization of journalistic offences. The Author is married and father of four (4) children.