Official Languages : Promotion Bill In National Assembly

The bill on the promotion of official languages in Cameroon was tabled during a plenary sitting of the National Assembly on November 25, 2019. It is in accordance with the provisions of Article 1 (3) of the Constitution which provides that, “The official languages of the Republic of Cameroon shall be English and French, both languages having the same status. The State shall guarantee the promotion of bilingualism throughout the country.” Government in the explanatory statement indicates that “it gives effect to the instructions of the President of the Republic to reinforce the bilingual nature of our country, its multiculturalism and living together.” It applies to all public institutions in which English and French shall be the working languages without distinction, ensure the equal use of the two languages in public institutions. The bill provides for the institution of National Bilingualism Day. When adopted, it will help to bridge an existing legal gap, in order to ensure greater representation of the two linguistic communities in public institutions.

Settlement, Tourism Bills Adopted After tabling the bill, two bills earlier examined in Committees were adopted. This phase was somehow extraordinary. Extraordinary because after the reading of the general reports of the two bills, the House Speaker opened the floor for general debates but curiously no Member of the National Assembly raised his or her hand to ask questions. Consequently the bills were adopted in their initial stage and the plenary sitting took close an hour. The first bill adopted was that to authorise the President of the Republic to ratify the amendments to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), adopted since its establishment in Mexico on 27 September 1970. The Minister of State, Minister of Tourism and Leisure, Bello Bouba Maigari was there in the presence of t...