The right to health and the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls in Cameroon: what guarantee in a fragile economic context?

Abstract

The guarantee of the sexual and reproductive rights of women and girls in Cameroon, in spite of the sectoral health strategies, programmes and reproductive health policies that have succeeded one another over the years, remains insufficient.  Although women and girls are considered a vulnerable segment of the population - apart from the disabled, the elderly and children - because of their exposure to the risks associated with sexual activity, the reality of the right of access to sexual and reproductive health services and care for women and girls still faces enormous inadequacies, of which material and financial resources are the most obvious.  Indeed, state efforts to improve the enjoyment of these human rights are compromised by a climate of crisis where public resources allocated to health are the lowest in Africa and remain below the average for sub-Saharan African countries, and where 36% of households affected by poverty meet most of their health needs. It therefore seems logical to question the real capacity of the Cameroonian State to implement, through measures adapted to the needs of this target population, the commitments it has undertaken to protect their sexual and reproductive rights. This article provides an opportunity to assess the State's contribution to the exercise by women and girls of these rights enshrined in international, regional and national texts. The methodology envisaged consists of a critical analysis of State initiatives aimed at achieving and improving the protection of sexual and reproductive rights, with a view to identifying some of the shortcomings in the national system for the provision of sexual and reproductive health services and proposing strategies to strengthen the guarantee of these rights, so that the right to health is truly meaningful.