Unlike previous years, despite the security constraints due to the attacks of Boko Haram and the tight schedule of the Office, some major activities were carried out during 2015. From the beginning of the year, under the chair of UNOWA (United Office for West Africa) / NCJC (Nigeria- Cameroon Joint Commission), in collaboration with UNICEF and UNAIDS, UNHCR participated in regular meetings of the UN inter-agency group responsible for designing the protection component of the Confidence Building Initiative programme for Cameroonian populations affected by the demarcation of borders between Nigeria and Cameroon, following the implementation of the Greentree Agreement. The cash-based intervention (CBI) is made up of 5 projects, the most important being the protection of the population of Bakassi against the risk of statelessness. UNHCR participated in the updating of the project, to align it with the results of the survey commissioned by the office, in 2012, for Bakassi.
In September of the same year, UNHCR presented a paper during the sub-regional training on statelessness organized by a local NGO. Later in the year, the Ministry of territorial administration and decentralization of Cameroon (MINATD) was invited and supported by UNHCR to participate in the first ever training of the UNESCO on Statelessness, in the Republic of Benin in November 2015.
Finally, UNHCR organized from 8 to 12 December 2015, in collaboration with the MINATD and local authorities of the Division of Ndian, a training workshop for civil status registration officers and clerks as well as mayors of the 9 councils in the Ndian Division (including those of the Bakassi peninsular). The training focused on the importance of birth registration and the risk of statelessness related to lack of birth registration. A total of 60 people were trained during this workshop.
The report of UN agencies’ joint mission to the Far North regions (Lake Chad and Mayo-Sava) and Southwest Region (Bakassi Peninsula) identified, among other problems that the people face, a very low rate of individual documentation (birth certificates, national ID cards), sexual violence and early marriage that all increase the vulnerability of the people to of HIV / AIDS, low school enrolment and consequently low literacy levels. The particularly complex political context of certain areas of the Lake Chad area and the Bakassi Peninsula also add to this already serious national situation.
Despite the willingness of the government and the actions of development partners, the level of birth registration in Cameroon remains worrying. Although specific data is not available for project areas, the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2011 reported that the birth registration rate of children less than 5 years for the Far North Region is of 38 per cent, being the lowest rate among all regions of the country. Thus empirical evidence leads us to believe that the birth registration rate in the areas of Bakassi (largely populated by Nigerians) is even lower than the rate of the Far North Region. The survey carried out by UNHCR in Bakassi in 2013 confirmed this trend. Many residents of these areas face institutional and financial difficulties as well as physical barriers preventing access to administrative services responsible for birth registration and the issuance of birth certificates. Children that are not registered at birth are at risk of never being officially recognized in a formal legal or statistical document and are therefore excluded from the benefits of citizenship and any planning.
Moreover at the end of the period of grace provided by the Greentree Agreement (12 June 2006 to mid-August 2013), the protection risks faced by the Nigerian population settled in Bakassi Peninsula have become acute.
2017