Cameroon’s Civil Code and Gender-Based Violence
When the Law Fails to Protect
According to International law, the family law of a country should protect vulnerable populations, especially women. When a country fails to do so due to bureaucratic hurdles in the implementation of a law for protection despite promises to halve violence against women by a specific year, the gap between commitment and implementation raises questions about the nature of that commitment.
The dynamics of gender-based violence in Cameroon are a case in point. On June 24, 2026, Human Rights Watch published a report titled “I Live in Constant Peril”, documenting discrimination, lack of economic autonomy, and violence against women in Cameroon. The report established that despite the government of Cameroon’s 2011 commitment to halve violence against women by 2026, 4 out of 10 women in a relationship faced physical, sexual, psychological, and economic violence in their lifetime. Notably, in 2024 alone, 77 women were killed by their current partners or ex-partners. The trend of violence is particularly significant in the central region of Cameroon, where 64% of women are reported to have experienced all forms of violence.
A combination of legal hurdles, governance challenges and cultural beliefs has enabled this scale of violence against women in the country. According to the Civil Code of Cameroon, a husband is recognized as the head of a family, with authority over matrimonial property and the wife’s employment decisions, leaving women with little economic autonomy and increased vulnerability to abuse. Notably, a draft Family Code addressing a few of the inequalities in the established legal frameworks has existed for more than 20 years, but the government has failed to adopt it, leaving victims with little hope of any legal safeguards. The country also lacks a dedicated and comprehensive legal framework for domestic violence. Furthermore, discriminatory cultural beliefs also limit victims’ access to policing and legal safeguards, with women being discouraged from reporting abuse. In some cases of violence, the police also pressure victims to reunite with perpetrators, as the authorities believe that violence against wives by husbands is a private family matter.
The violence that is dismissed as a private matter has significant implications not only for women in the country but also for its economy. According to a 2024 study published in Archives of Public Health, out of 404 interviewed women who had either experienced emotional, physical, sexual, or economic abuse, 80.2% of them reported mental disorders, gynaecological trauma, physical trauma, or behavioural trauma, while some even reported having more than one of the aforementioned conditions. Furthermore, gender-based discrimination has ultimately led to a poverty percentage of 51.5% and an underemployment percentage of 79.2% for women in Cameroon. In a country where females make up approximately 50.16% of the total population, these statistics signify a substantial loss of economic growth potential.
Nevertheless, the case of Cameroon is not isolated. Violence against women is a pressing global human rights concern. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 1 in 3 women worldwide aged 15 and older have experienced physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. The cost of this violence is huge for economic progress in countries, as research indicates it can cost countries up to 3.7% of their GDP due to the burden being placed on healthcare, police, and justice systems.
Ultimately, violence against women in Cameroon reflects patterns consistent with systemic gaps in protection, the cost of which is being borne by the women. Beyond the crisis, in a country where 39% of the population lives below the poverty line, without a systemic reduction of violence against women, economic progress will become a more tedious process than normal.