Cameroon Bar Council Suspends Lawyers’ Robes to Protest Police Brutality

The Cameroon Bar Council has called for the suspension of lawyers’ robes from March 5 to 7, 2025, to Protest against recurrent abuses on lawyers by security forces.

In a statement signed by Bar President Mbah Eric Mbah, on March 4, the Bar Council says police violence against lawyers has been undermining “the exercise of the legal profession, the image, integrity, and sanctity of the legal profession.”

He also said the Bar will take legal action against those who have taken part in abusing lawyers recently.

Recurrent Police Assault

The Bar Council’s assertiveness follows recent cases of police brutality against advocates in Cameroon, a long-standing issue that has recently gained renewed spotlight.

The immediate cause of the Bar Council’s decision is violence meted on Douala-based advocate Barrister Ngawou Gilbert on March 1.

According to the Bar Council, the police subjected the lawyer and other civilians to “degrading” and “inhumane” treatment.

A day earlier, the police also unlawfully detained a lawyer who had denounced the violation of his client’s rights. The Bar says they forced him to withdraw his statement before releasing him.

The attacks on lawyers, Human Rights Watch said, are intended to deter them from doing their job. The country does not have a clean human rights record.

The international organization wrote in a December 2024 statement that arbitrary arrest, harassment, and other forms of police brutality, including verbal and physical assault, against lawyers are common in Cameroon.

The HRW statement came after three gendarme officers heavily brutalized popular human rights lawyer, Barrister Tamfu Richard in Douala on November 27.

Tamfu was beaten for simply standing up for his client by resisting his unlawful arrest.

Other lawyers like rights lawyer, Amungwa Tanyi Nicodemus, who defends victims of the Anglophone Crisis, and Barrister Atoh Walter M. Tchemi, have also suffered brutality from the police and military in connection with their jobs.

The Bar Council says these events not only tarnish the image of the law profession in Cameroon, but endanger the safety and lives of advocates and all human rights defenders.