Cameroon
Practice Relating to Rule 152. Command Responsibility for Orders to Commit War Crimes
Cameroon’s Disciplinary Regulations (1975) states: “The commander is personally responsible for the orders he gives. He looks after their execution and engages his responsibility for their consequences.”
The Disciplinary Regulations adds:
The commander has the right and the duty to require absolute obedience from his subordinates. However, he can not require them to accomplish acts, the execution of which would engage their penal responsibility. These acts are the following: … acts contrary to the laws and customs of war.
Cameroon’s Instructor’s Manual (2006) states with regard to command responsibility: “The repression of grave breaches [of IHL] applies to persons who have committed or ordered to commit a grave breach [of IHL].”
Cameroon’s Disciplinary Regulations (2007) states:
Article 16: Personal responsibility
The commander is personally responsible for the orders he gives. He looks after their execution and thus engages his responsibility for their consequences.
…
Article 17: Penal responsibility
The commander has the right and the duty to require absolute obedience from his subordinates.
However, he cannot require them to accomplish acts the execution of which would engage their penal responsibility.
These acts are in particular the following:
…
- Acts contrary to the laws and customs of war such as recalled in articles 30 to 34 of the present regulations.