Yaounde, 19 June 2009

High Commissioner Syd Maddicott used the occasion of the Queen’s 83rd birthday party to congratulate the Government of Cameroon on the overall improvement of the country’s human rights record and to encourage her to make progress in certain areas. Over 400 people including Cameroon Government officials, members of the diplomatic corps in Yaounde and civil society leaders joined the staff of the High Commission and the British Council at the event, which lasted 5 hours.

The High Commissioner praised the Cameroon Government for revising its criminal procedure laws, increasing the food rations of prisoners and criminalising female genital mutilation. "I hope the overall effect will be to reduce violence against women significantly", he said. [ Full speech ]

HE Maddicott encouraged the country’s leaders to keep the commitment they took at the Human Rights Commission in Geneva to submit Cameroon to an international peer review mechanism notably to allow inspection teams visit Cameroon’s prisons.

Guests at the party drank to the health of Queen Elizabeth II of the UK and President Paul Biya of Cameroon.

Although Her Majesty was born on 21 April, the Queen’s Birthday Party is usually held in Yaounde in June every year in keeping with a worldwide tradition to have the event during summer. Each year’s event in Yaounde is celebrated under a theme that affords the British High Commissioner the opportunity to address a priority policy issue of the UK in its Cameroon country objectives.

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