Yaoundé - On 15 May 2024, the entire international community celebrated the 30th anniversary of the International Year of the Family. In Cameroon, the day was marked by the official ceremony to launch activities relating to the celebration. The ceremony was attended by a host of guests, including Mrs Marie Thérèse Abena Ondoa, Minister for the Promotion of Women and the Family (MINPROFF).

Governmental, administrative, civil, religious and traditional authorities, representatives of diplomatic missions and international organizations were given the opportunity, through presentations and discussions, to exchange views on the contemporary challenges facing families and impacting on their structure and functioning. As MINPROFF pointed out, these challenges include “technological change, urbanization, migration and demographic change, all of which have an impact on the functioning and well-being of families”.

In Cameroon, the theme chosen for the celebrations, “Resilient families in the face of socio-economic, migratory, climatic and technological challenges”, is an invitation to all stakeholders to look at the many specific problems facing the family unit. According to Marie Thérèse Abena Ondoa, these include, but are not limited to, “the phenomenon of street children; children without birth certificates; infanticide; feminicide; parricide; matricide; child abandonment; child trafficking and exploitation; pedophilia; rape; early and forced marriages; and genital mutilation”.

The 15 May ceremony and all the activities that follow will help to raise general awareness of family-related issues and increase knowledge of the social, economic and demographic processes that affect this basic unit of society to remedy the problems it faces.

For the mission of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Cameroon, this commemoration was an opportunity to strengthen participants' understanding of migration trends, the driving forces behind movements and the dynamics that specifically affect families on their migratory journey. The aim was also to give families the tools and guidance they need to meet the challenges identified above, and to inform them about the legal and regulatory framework for family protection at national, regional and international level. Finally, it was a question of educating them about some resilience actions based on the experience of migrant families, concerted efforts between state and non-state actors and based on more direct communication with the targets concerned.

The International Year of the Family was established by the United Nations General Assembly in resolution A/RES/47/237 of 20 September 1993 and is celebrated on 15 May each year. The aim of the Year is to focus attention on emerging issues that impact on the structure and functioning of the family, with a view to remedying them.
 

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For more information, please contact:     

• Maurice Charles Quentin, IOM Cameroon, Tel : 692555810, Email: cmaurice@iom.int
• Jennie Roberta Ngbwa, IOM Cameroon, Tel : 690327000, Email: jngbwa@iom.int