Human rights abuses in Cambodia on the rise in 2009: Civil Society

Cops surrounding opposition MP Mu Sochua in an attempt to prevent her and her supporters to march in protest

01 Jan 2010
By Keo Nimol
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Komping Puoy
Click her e to read the article in Khmer

Human rights organization officials and workers estimate that, in 2009, the number of human rights abuses in Cambodia increased when compared to the same period in 2008.

Am Sam Ath, an observer for the Licadho human rights group, said that in the past year, there was an increase in the number of abuse perpetrated on numerous important human rights cases, such as land dispute, forced evictions, injuries inflicted, impunity – i.e. violations of the law – children and women trafficking.

Am Sam Ath said: “In general, there is no decline in human rights abuse. If we look at rape cases, the number of cases is increasing.”

Am Sam Ath indicated also that the reason there was an increase in human rights violation was because legal resolutions were not possible: the rich use their money to hide their misdeeds, and a number of government officials do not fulfill their duties properly as prescribed by the law, they only think about their personal interest.

Ou Virak, President of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), said on 01 January 2010 that there are difficulties in clearly evaluating human rights violations, however, based on the number of court cases, it is observed that they are on the rise, and also the ruling (CPP) party had openly violated the rights of the opposition party, etc…

Ou Virak said: “If we look at the court cases, we believe that their number increased in 2009. Lawsuits brought against human rights activists and the opposition party are on the rise in cases involving political rights and citizen rights.”

Ou Virak recognized that the ruling party attempted to strengthen the respect of human rights in a number of cases, but that it still fell short to the needs of the general public: “In truth, I see that there are some positive points also.”

Phay Siphan, the secretary of state and mouthpiece of the Council of Ministers, said that a number of issues raised by human rights organizations can be welcomed, however, a number of other issues cannot be accepted.

Phay Siphan said: “What they talked about is report tendencies, but they lack truthful democratic basis and human rights respect. As I said, the Cambodian government is continuing to strengthen both its policy and the institution for the protection of the people’s human rights.”

In 2009, the government issued its human rights report to the Geneva-based UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR). Member countries that attended the Geneva meeting paid close attention to the forced eviction cases in Cambodia and they also questioned the Cambodian representatives on this very hot topic.