Cameroon in Regional and International Organisations
Questions here test which organisations Cameroon belongs to, what each does, where key institutions sit, and how membership shapes sovereignty and foreign policy. Named-country and named-city questions are common.
The United Nations
Cameroon joined the UN on 20 September 1960 and takes part in peacekeeping operations. UN agencies (UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, UNHCR, WFP) support health, education and refugee programmes; Cameroon hosts Nigerian and Central African refugees, including at the Minawao camp.
The African Union
Cameroon is a founding member of the Organisation of African Unity (1963) and of the African Union (2002). It is party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and a member of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Central African economic communities
CEMAC, created by the treaty signed in N'Djamena in 1994 and in force from 1999, groups Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, with the CFA franc as the common currency. Cameroon is its largest economy, and both BEAC, the central bank, and COBAC, the banking regulator, are headquartered in Yaounde. Do not confuse CEMAC with ECCAS (CEEAC), the wider eleven-member Economic Community of Central African States based in Libreville.
Other memberships
OHADA, harmonising business law since 1993, with its Permanent Secretariat in Yaounde; the Commonwealth, joined in 1995; the International Organisation of La Francophonie; the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; the WTO since 1995; the IMF and World Bank; the partnership between the OACPS and the European Union; the Lake Chad Basin Commission and the Multinational Joint Task Force.
Benefits, costs and obligations
Benefits include market access, development finance, technical assistance, a common currency, harmonised law and a diplomatic platform. Costs include membership dues, compliance with community rules, reporting duties and loss of unilateral discretion.
Worked example
The Bakassi dispute. Cameroon filed against Nigeria at the International Court of Justice in 1994. In its judgment of 10 October 2002 the Court held that the Bakassi peninsula belonged to Cameroon under the 1913 Anglo-German agreement and ordered Nigeria to withdraw. The UN-brokered Greentree Agreement of 12 June 2006 arranged the withdrawal, completed on 14 August 2008. Marks come from naming the court, the year, the legal basis and the negotiated follow-up.
Traps
Confusing CEMAC with ECCAS. Placing BEAC in Libreville. Claiming Cameroon belongs to ECOWAS, which it does not. Thinking international membership always overrides the Constitution, when Article 45 makes ratified treaties superior to domestic statutes only under conditions of reciprocity and legality.