Evolution and Impact of Upholding Women’s Rights against Harmful Marriage Customs/Traditions in the Western Grasslands of Cameroon Since 1948

Abstract

Upholding women’s rights against harmful customs/traditions of marriage in the western Grasslands of Cameroon, to ensure empowerment and autonomy to improve on their political, economic and health status has walked along distance, but is still far from reaching its intended destination. Data obtained from empirical, primary and secondary sources show that even though Cameroon has made key strides over the years towards women’s empowerment, through major international commitments, including the convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discriminations Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and others reviewed, customary laws were still very much preferred tantamount to women’s rights violation, especially in rural areas in the  Western Grasslands of Cameroon. This was going on despite measures provided for by the Cameroon government constitution that enshrine gender equality. As such many ills stemming from customs/traditions of marriage such as marital rape, continuation of child marriages, domestic violence, breast ironing and so on, are still being experienced. To reach gender parity, gender mainstreaming already earmarked by international norms has to be the watch word of every sector, be it in the traditional or public sectors of the whole Cameroonian societies.