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Alice N'Kom


Born in 1945 in Putkak, Cameroon (married, two children), Alice N'kom studied law in Toulouse, France, and became a prominent lawyer in a career that now lasts more than forty years. At present she is attached to the prominent firm of VABNI (Viazzi, Aubret, Battu, N'Kom and Ipouck). In her career, she attracted international attention by her courageous stance on a wide variety of topics (e.g. in February, 2008 she was the leasing lawyer defending young victims of severe police violence after large scale demonstrations). However, she became especially well-known fpr taking up the defence of people accused of homosexual acts (legally forbidden in Cameroon).

Lately homosexuality became a major issue in many African countries. Cameroon stands out for the severity with which the judicial apparatus - police and courts - persecute 'homosexuals'. Maître N'Kom showed remarkable courage - also against heavy social censure - in taking up the case of the defendants. In 2003 she founded the Association pour la Défense de l'Homosexualité (ADEFHO) that offers general assistance to people arrested, detained and/or convicted for homosexuality.
Since 2003 she defended more than 30 cases of people accused of homosexual acts - sometimes with at least some success like the release of two young men in January 2013, after a conviction on homosexuality charges and a condemnation to five year of prison in November 2011.

Thus she became a rare point of support for an increasing number of people in Cameroon who are in distress because of accusations of homosexuality. She has been facing threats since 2008, first from a magistrate association, which intended to struck her from the Cameroonian bar because of her commitment to defend LGBTI rights. More recently she started receiving death threats via email and text messages for her work for LGBTI rights without the police willing to investigate.
She sets an example for lawyers in many other countries where persecution of people because of their (assumed) sexual orientation is a flagrant breach of human rights.
Alice N'Kom participated in the first OutGames Human Rights Conference in Montréal in 2006, and strongly impressed the audience then.
She also did at the Antwerp conference, where she was invited for the main opening speech on July 31.