Cameroon

Legal framework for birth registration	Ordinance No. 81-02 (29 June 1981) on the organization of civil status and various provisions related to the status of natural persons, as amended and supplemented by Act No. 2011/011 (6 May 2011)
Official authorities in charge of registering births	Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization (MINATD) Delegates of the Government to the urban communities and their deputies, Mayors and their deputies, Heads of diplomatic missions or consular posts, Civil registrars (Ordinance No. 81-02, article 7)
Organizational structure	Decentralized
Is there a legal obligation to register the birth of a child?	Yes
Is an official birth certificate issued as a result of birth registration?	Yes Download sample birth certificate
Legal informant to register a birth	Head of hospital, Physician, Any person who attended the mother during the birth, Mother and father; When a child is born in a hospital or a medical institution, the informant is the head of the hospital or, failing that, the physician or any person who attended the mother within 30 days of the delivery. In case of non-declaration by the hospital or a medical institution within the time limit of 30 days, the child’s parents have an additional 60 days to make the declaration (article 31).
Time allowed for registration	30 days for hospitals, an additional 60 days for parents (article 30)
Fee for birth registration	No
Can the fee be increased or waived?	Yes
Fee for birth certificate	No
Penalty for late registration	Yes, the cost is increased in the case of a late declaration of the birth, or the parents are obliged to go through the Tribunal for a supplementary judgment. Births declared after the deadline may be registered at the request of the public prosecutor within 6 months of birth (Act No. 2011/011, article 32). When a birth has not been declared within the 6-month period, it cannot be registered by the civil registrar, but only by virtue of a declaratory judgment rendered by the competent court authority (Act No. 2011/011, article 33).
Other official fees involved in the birth registration process	No
Requirements or fees specific to children who are eligible for citizenship but were born outside the country	No
Requirements or fees specific to children whose parents are foreign nationals	No
Requirements for birth registration	Identification of the child’s father, Identification of the child’s mother, Name of the child
Information collected	-Name of the main or secondary civil registry and, where applicable, that of the main civil status registry -Full name, sex, the date and place of birth of the child -Full name, age, nationality, occupation, domicile or place of residence of the mother and father of the child -Full name and signatures of the civil status registrar and secretary -Date on which the birth certificate is drawn up (article 34).
Processing	Manually (on paper); All vital events are directly recorded on standardized forms, their fill fields are free and they are manually filled in cursive writing, which prohibits their subsequent exploitation by optical character recognition.
Place of registration	Main or secondary civil registration offices, Place of birth
A birth certificate is required for:	Identification, Education, Inheritance, Voting, Obtaining social assistance
Process for establishing vital statistics on births	There is no mechanism to transfer the information collected in the registers to the National Institute of Statistics.

Download sample birth certificate

Data sources: Information on civil registration systems was compiled over a period from December 2016 to November 2017 using the existing relevant legal frameworks and in consultation with CRVS experts, officials within the relevant national institutions, and UNICEF country offices. All reasonable precautions have been taken by UNICEF to verify this country profile; updates will be made to reflect changes in policy and implementation and/or new information.

Legal framework for marriage registration	Ordinance No. 81-02 (29 June 1981) on the organization of civil status and various provisions related to the status of natural persons, as amended and supplemented by Act No. 2011/011 (6 May 2011)
Official authorities in charge of registering a marriage	Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization (MINATD) Delegates of the Government to the urban communities and their deputies, Mayors and their deputies, Heads of diplomatic missions or consular posts, Civil registrars (Ordinance No. 81-02, article 7)
Organizational structure	Decentralized
Legal age for marriage	18 years for males and 15 years for females; Exemption: Marriage cannot be celebrated if the bride is under 15 years old or the groom is under 18 years old, unless dispensed by the President of the Republic on serious grounds (article 52).
Is there a legal obligation to register marriages?	Yes
Is an official marriage certificate issued as a result of marriage registration?	Yes, immediately (family record book) Download sample marriage certificate
Legal informant to register a marriage	Bride and groom
Time allowed for registration	No
Fee for marriage registration	Yes, variable according to municipalities
Can the fee be increased or waived?	Yes (i.e. if many weddings occur at the same time)
Fee for marriage certificate	Yes, varies by municipality
Penalty for late registration	No
Other official fees involved in the marriage registration process	Yes, filing fees vary from one civil registration centre to another
Additional registration requirements or fees if one spouse was born outside the country or has dual citizenship	No
Requirements for marriage registration	Presence of husband at place of registration, Presence of wife at place of registration, Residential evidence of husband, Residential evidence of wife, Proof of wife’s age, Proof of husband’s age; One month before the celebration of the marriage, the civil registration officer shall have before him or her a declaration stating the names, surnames, profession, domicile, age and place of birth of the future spouses (article 53). The civil registration officer immediately proceeds to the publication of the declaration by posting it to the civil registration centre (article 54). The celebration of marriage must take place in the presence of: the future spouses and the representative of the prospective spouse; legal or customary parents or guardians where consent is required; at least two witnesses at least one per spouse (article 69). The marriage certificate shall be jointly signed by the spouses, witnesses, officer and secretary of civil status. An original is given to each spouse (Act No. 2011/011, article 49).
Information collected	The act of marriage shall contain the following information: – The name of the principal or secondary registration centre and, where applicable, the principal registration centre; – Names, forenames, date and place of birth, nationality, occupation and domicile of the spouses; – Consent of the parents, in case of minority; – Date and place of the celebration of the marriage; – The marital system (polygamy or monogamy); – Indication of the system of property (community or separation of property); – Names and surnames of the witnesses; – Names and surnames of the civil registration officer; – Signatures of the spouses, witnesses, officer and registrar. (Act No. 2011/011, article 49).
Processing	Manually (on paper); All vital events are directly recorded on non-standardized forms, their fill fields are free and they are manually filled in cursive writing, which prohibits their subsequent exploitation by optical character recognition.
Place of registration	Main or secondary civil registration centres.
A marriage certificate is required for:	Inheritance, registration of children
Process for establishing vital statistics on marriage	There is no mechanism to transfer of the information collected in the register to the National Institute of Statistics.

Download sample marriage certificate

Legal framework for death registration	Ordinance No. 81-02 (29 June 1981) on the organization of civil status and various provisions related to the status of natural persons, as amended and supplemented by Act No. 2011/011 (6 May 2011)
Official authorities in charge of registering a death	Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization (MINATD) Delegates of the Government to the urban communities and their deputies, Mayors and their deputies, Heads of diplomatic missions or consular posts, Civil registrars (Ordinance No. 81-02, article 7)
Organizational structure	Decentralized
Is there a legal obligation to register deaths?	Yes
Is an official death certificate issued as a result of death registration?	Yes, immediately Download sample death certificate
Legal informant to register a death	Head of the family, A relative of the deceased, Any other person who has knowledge of the death (article 78)
Time allowed for registration	90 days (article 78)
Fee for death registration	No
Can the fee be increased or waived?	Yes
Fee for death certificate	Yes
Penalty for late registration	In the event of a late declaration of death, the declarant is obliged to go through the Tribunal for a declaratory judgment, which includes costs.
Other official fees involved in the death registration process	No
Registration requirements or fees specific for the deaths of people who were residents in the country and also of foreign nationality	No
Requirements for death registration	The death declaration must be certified by two witnesses.
Information collected	The death certificate must contain the following information: – Name of the main or secondary vital centre and, where applicable, the main registration centre it depends; – Surnames, forenames, date and place of birth, sex, marital status, occupation and residence of the deceased; – Date and place of death; – Names and surnames of the father and mother of the deceased; – Surname, forenames, profession, quality and domicile of the declarant; – Names, surnames, occupation and residence of the witnesses; – The date on which the act was drawn up (Act No. 2011/011, article 79)
Information collected in case of fetal death	Fetal deaths are not registered.
Processing	Manually (on paper); All vital events are directly recorded on non-standardized forms, their fill fields are free and they are manually filled in cursive writing, which prohibits their subsequent exploitation by optical character recognition.
Place of registration	Main or secondary civil registration centres of the place of occurrence, burial, residence or birth of the deceased
A death certificate is required for:	Burial, Inheritance, Obtaining social assistance
Process for establishing vital statistics on deaths	There is no mechanism to transfer the information collected in the register to the National Institute of Statistics.

Download sample death certificate

MICS

Since its inception in 1995, the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, known as MICS, has become the largest source of statistically sound and internationally comparable data on women and children worldwide. In countries as diverse as Costa Rica, Mali and Qatar, trained fieldwork teams conduct face-to-face interviews with household members on a variety of topics – focusing mainly on those issues that directly affect the lives of children and women.

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Key demographic indicators

Under-five mortality rate

Population

Trends in under-five mortality rate

Child health

Child protection

Child survival

Early childhood

Education

HIV/AIDS

Maternal and newborn health

Nutrition

Sanitation

Drinking water

CRVS – Birth, Marriage and Death Registration in Cameroon – UNICEF DATA

MICS