Sanctioning Human Rights Defaulters in the Fight against Terrorism in Cameroon

Sanctions for human rights violation in the fight against terrorism have been the major policy innovation of the late twentieth century designed to solve human rights violations. The main justification for punishing human rights offenders is that sanctions are a means to deter future violations. This article therefore examines the various sanctions for human rights violations in the fight against terrorism in Cameroon and further shows that those sanctions have not been able to deter violators of human rights. It further evaluates whether the use of sanctions is a suitable means to achieve internal peace and security or is actually problematic to resolving the issues that lead to sanctions. If the various sanctions have no deterrent effect, then we propose that an alternative could be community sanction which aims at reformation and rehabilitation of human rights violators.