Cameroon is not yet a signatory to the two statelessness conventions, although the Government has announced that it will study the possibility of acceding to them. A monitoring committee has been set up for this purpose. During the High-Level Segment on Statelessness held in Geneva on 7 October 2019, the Cameroon presented four pledges:
1) To finalize the process leading to Cameroon's accession to the statelessness conventions (completion date June 2020);
2) To include a course on citizenship and statelessness in the training curriculum for the Central Administration (completion date: academic year 2020-2021);
3) To implement the governmental decision of March 2019 on the regularization of the civil status of people living without birth certificates (completion date 2020); and
4) To conduct a qualitative study on the risks of statelessness by December 2020.
Results achieved in 2019 included:
1) The development, in an inclusive manner, of a national action plan to combat statelessness (linked to the global action plan). This plan will have to be validated by the central authorities in Yaoundé;
2) Collaboration with the Catholic University of Central Africa for the launch in December 2019 of the first edition of the francophone course on statelessness and nationality;
3) Local initiatives in the field in terms of training for the staff of BUNEC regional offices, civil status officers and secretaries as well as administrative, judicial, traditional and medical authorities in May, June, August and September 2019 respectively;
4) Large-scale awareness sessions on the importance of systematic birth registration as a measure to prevent statelessness, organized by partner Plan International (450 refugees were reached), along with radio broadcasts to raise awareness among the general public on legal issues related to statelessness;
5) The organization of mobile court hearings for the issuance of birth certificates for the benefit of 1,000 refugees, IPDs and members of the host community, including some adults at risk of statelessness and 769 children.
The 250,000 people at risk of statelessness in Cameroon, includes children. 3,000 children in need of birth certificates had been targeted through the late declaration procedure involving the judicial and health authorities , but the intervention was not completed due to lack of resources, putting these children at risk of statelessness.