Five bills aimed at toughening penalties for feminicide and gender-based violence have been filed with Cameroon's National Assembly — none has yet been examined in a plenary session.
The Social Democratic Front (SDF), the main opposition party, accuses the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (RDPC) of deliberately burying these texts instead of scheduling them for debate.
Minister of Women's Empowerment and the Family Marie-Thérèse Abena Ondoa had nonetheless told parliamentarians in June 2026 that she hoped a bill would be examined during the November session — her ministry has since been working on legislation that would create a standalone criminal offense for gender-based violence.
The parliamentary standstill comes as official figures keep climbing: 50 feminicides recorded between January and April 2026 by the Ministry of Women's Empowerment, part of an already steep trend (50 in 2023, 67 in 2024, roughly 77 in 2025).
For women's rights organizations, the gap between government announcements and the absence of a concrete legislative timeline illustrates a recurring problem: turning public awareness into an enforceable law.
Until any of the five bills clears a plenary vote, the debate remains stuck in limbo — caught between media outrage and a persistent legal void on how feminicide is defined under criminal law.
