Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon (Law No. 96-06 of 18 January 1996), Preamble (Privacy of correspondence; freedom of communication, expression and the press)

The Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon, as established by Law No. 96-06 of 18 January 1996 revising the Constitution of 2 June 1972 (and further amended in 2008), sets out its bill of rights principally in the Preamble, which Article 65 declares to be an integral part of the Constitution and therefore of constitutional value. The Preamble guarantees that the privacy of all correspondence is inviolable and that no interference may be permitted save by virtue of decisions emanating from the judicial power; it further guarantees the freedom of communication, of expression, of the press, of assembly and of association, 'under the conditions fixed by law'. These guarantees provide the constitutional foundation for the protection of private communications and online expression in Cameroon, and form the backdrop to the country's statutory framework, Law No. 2010/012 on cybersecurity and cybercrime and Law No. 2024/017 on personal data protection. The provisions are not digital-specific: the Preamble protects 'correspondence' and 'communication' in general terms, without express reference to electronic communications, the internet or personal data, and there is no developed constitutional case law applying them to the digital sphere. This entry is recorded in line with the Library's established practice of capturing the constitutional privacy-and-expression layer for each jurisdiction; the absence of digital-specific language is flagged for the reviewer. The practical significance of these guarantees is materially qualified by the documented internet shutdowns imposed on the Anglophone North-West and South-West regions in 2017-2018, ordered administratively rather than under any dedicated statutory shutdown power, and challenged (without lasting success) before the courts, illustrating the gap between the constitutional text and practice. Original language: English / French (both official).

1. 1Preamble (an integral part of the Constitution under Article 65), inviolability of the privacy of all correspondence, infringeable only by judicial decision
2. 2Preamble, freedom of communication, expression, the press, assembly and association, 'under the conditions fixed by law'
3. 3Constitutional backdrop to Law 2010/012 (cyber) and Law 2024/017 (data protection)
4. 4Not digital-specific; included per the Library's cross-jurisdiction practice (flagged for reviewer)
5. 5Practical force qualified by the 2017-2018 Anglophone-region internet shutdowns, ordered administratively and challenged in court