A new law currently being debated by Parliament in Cameroon proposes that adulterous men be slapped with jail sentences.
The law, which is said to have the support of President Paul Biya and his Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, follows a similar one that stipulates women are to face between two and six months for having s*xual relations outside marriage.
Under the laws, an adulterous husband or wife could be dragged to court should there be a complaint from their partner. Implicated adulterers would face up to six months in prison or get fined up to $175.
Meanwhile, the head of the Cameroon Bar Association, Ngnie Kamga has condemned the law arguing it would “take Cameroon backwards and would send more people to prisons.” Gender activists also oppose the law on the grounds that it contravenes CEDAW, the UN Convention for the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
In contrast, South African courts have begun to process “no fault” divorce cases since the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled two years ago that adultery is “archaic” and “the time for its abolition has come.”
There is no evidence that the action for adultery would deter a spouse in a marriage from committing adultery nor would it deter a third party from committing adultery with a married person. It has long been recognized that adultery is a symptom of the breakdown of the marital relationship and not the cause.
In 1978, the Law Commission on divorce, which was responsible for the present Divorce Act 70 of 1979 (introducing the no-fault system of divorce), stated that, “Adultery and malicious desertion are for the most part only the ultimate acts which indicate that a marriage has broken down. They are more often the effects of a marriage having broken down than the causes of breakdown”.
