SCNC Press Release, Bamenda, 23 March - On March 15, 2006 the UN General Assembly adopted a Resolution creating the UN Human Rights Council.

As reported last year in the Press Conference of April 18, 2005 after our historic participation, the creation of the Human Rights Council is part of the reforms and the restructuring which the UN is undergoing to tackle and solve global problems of gross human rights violation and the constant threats these posse to world peace We salute the UN Secretary General, H.E. Kofi Annan’s determination to make the UN system live up to the wisdom that championed its founding , namely, to end colonization ,foreign occupation, alien rule- as a guarantor of world peace.

The Human Rights Council will be more powerful and effective in the handling of the concerns of the UNPO and its member nations and peoples, such as the Southern Cameroons, than the defunct UNCHR was capable of doing. The UN Human Rights Council is established to strengthen “the world body’s machinery to promote and protect fundamental rights, and deal with major human rights offenders”. UN General Assembly President, Jan Eliasson of Sweden, described the overwhelming approval creating the Human Rights Council as a “decisive moment”. He declared, “Today we stand ready to witness a new beginning for the promotion and protection of human rights”.

In the light of the above, the planned 62nd Session of the UNCHR which was to open from March 13-21 April 2006 has broken into phases. The purpose is to effect a smooth transition from the UNCHR into the UN Human Rights Council. The first sitting of the UN Human Rights Council is programmed from June 19, 2006.

While thanking all Southern Cameroonians for your spiritual, moral and financial support to ensure that your delegation is present and your plight and legitimate cry for justice is heard on the UN floor, I wish to assure you that nothing is lost. We should also thank the Most High that this transition and the creation of the UN Human Rights Council is taking place when our matter had already been presented on the UN floor and that we are part of this historic birth of a powerful organ of the UN system.

The historic and legal fact that in Africa there are two Cameroons, namely, SOUTHERN CAMEROONS and La Republique du Cameroun just the same as there are two Congos-Congo Brazzaville and Democratic Republic of Congo, and three Guineas, namely, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau and Equatorial Guinea has come to stay as one evidence of human progress and the search for world peace. Southern Cameroonians can never be part of a free humanity if their country remains the footstool of La Republique du Cameroun. Like East Timorese, Eritreans, we must like one man rise and asset our inalienable right to FREEDOM and JUSTICE.

La Republique du Cameroun and its lackeys in Southern Cameroon must come to terms with the reality that self determination and democracy, like two sides of the same bright coins are unstoppable currents in human history. Like hot lava following down from the summit of Mount Fako during a volcanic eruption, the SCNC is answering a historic mission and the State Restoration Train (SRT) that has no reverse gear will only stop in front of the Gate of FREEDOM.

Long live the Right to Self Determination
Long Live World Democracy and Peace based on Justice
Welcome UN Human Rights Council

Nfor Ngala Nfor
National Vice Chair, and
Chair, Foreign Affairs Commission

Source: Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC)