The Parliament of Cameroon adopts a Controversial New Penal Code with a bizarre English translation




MPs have just adopted the Controversial new Penal Code of Cameroon amidst tension at the National Assembly,SDF MPs called for a re look of the said bill which is flooded with wrong translations among others. The CPDM majority won the vote and the revised Penal Code will have to be sent to the Senate for same process. It is believed the bill will pass like a letter through the Post Office at the Senate whose majority are members of the CPDM,the ruling party.

Find below the new bill and the "official translation" from a country that is officially recognized as bilingual!


Article 7(1) French version : « La loi pénale de la République s’applique à tout fait commis sur son territoire ». Translation “The Criminal Law of the Republic shall apply to any offense committed within its territory” Why should the English translation mention “done or omitted”. Why the word omitted which is not in the French version. Maybe it is the word “committed” which has been misspelled

(2) Territory is limited to land, water ways and airspace in Cameroon. What of our embassies? Do they not constitute part of the Cameroonian territory?

Article 8 (2) b French version… « Contrefaçon du sceau de l’Etat ou monnaie nationale » : Translation “Counterfeiting of the great seal or the current money of the state” What is a great seal and what is current money of the state?” Proposal: It should have been translated as “…The seal and official currency of the state ..”

Article 9 (a) French version: « Les faits constitutifs de complicité, de conspiration et de tentatives réalisés sur le territoire de la République en vue de commettre une infraction ;

b) Les mêmes faits réalisés à l’étranger en vue de commettra une infraction sur le territoire.

Translation : a) “To any acts or omission within its territory constituting abetment, conspiracy or attempt with the view to an offence without the territory. - Why act or omission in the English version meanwhile in French it is just “act” (faits)? - With a view to (the word “commit”) is not mentioned in the English version.

b) To any such act or omission without its territory with a view to an offense within that territory. - The word “commit” is omitted in the English version while “without its territory is ambigu

The bill that has 370 articles, seeks to update the Penal Code that Cameroon has been using since 1967. Many of the provisions of the almost half a century Penal Code are obsolete and stand at variance with the evolution of time. They are at odds with the current socio-economic and political dispensation of the country.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Real Madrid set to take on Liverpool in the Champions League final

Image
The clash will take place on 26 May at the Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kiev. eal Madrid  will play Liverpool in the Champions League final, set to take place on Saturday, 26 of May at the Olimpiyskiy stadium in Kiev (8:45pm). The reigning European champions, who will be the home side, will be in the final for the  third consecutive season ,  and are up against the English team, who beat Roma in the other semi-final (7-6). Liverpool will be attempting to win their sixth  European Cup  to round off a fine season. Jurgen Klopp's side finished top of Group E ahead of Sevilla, Spartak Moscow and Maribor. In the last-sixteen their overcame Porto (5-0 on aggregate), before eliminating Manchester City (5-1) in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals, after beating Roma 5-2 at Anfield, they clinched their place in the final in Kiev away from home (4-2). It's the second time  Real Madrid  and Liverpool will meet in a  European Cup  fi...
Read more

How They Did It: Tracking the Copious Travels of Cameroon’s President

Image
Cameroon’s government is up in arms after an investigation into President Paul Biya’s extended “private trips” away from his own country. Here’s how three journalists collaborated across continents to count his days abroad and built their story. The topic was obvious. The numerous overseas trips of President Paul Biya have long irritated many Cameroonians, particularly due to the street closures that accompany his return, which can block traffic for hours in the capital of Yaoundé. Their annoyance deepened in October 2017, when Biya was away in Switzerland while protests in the west of the country  were violently quashed . Yet all the while, nobody had calculated the full scale of Biya’s absences from the country he has ruled since 1982. I pitched the idea to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) who immediately got on board with a budget, and finally  published our investigation  on February 18. It showed that, since the 85-year-old Biya h...
Read more

Boko Haram Attack Leaves at Least a Dozen Cameroonians Dead

Image
MABANDA, NORTHERN CAMEROON —  Boko Haram fighters have attacked villages in the Far North region of Cameroon leaving at least a dozen dead, several soldiers wounded and the villages torched in a large operation involving hundreds of attackers, some of whom used villagers as human shields. Children gathered in little groups along the road shout to welcome the Cameroon military in Mabanda, a northern village on the border with Nigeria. It is one of the villages that suffered the latest Boko Haram assaults this week. 43-year old village elder Alihou Idrissu says groups of fighters infiltrated the faithful praying in Mosques and sellers and buyers on their market day Wednesday.  He says one group of eight armed men invaded the Mosque while they were praying and ordered the Imam and all Muslims present to lead them to a nearby Cameroon military post. He says those who objected were killed. Idrissu says the militants operated for over two hours and killed at least 14 village...
Read more