Articles
30 November 2023
The Cambodian government’s endorsement of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in domestic violence cases – without ensuring access to courts and support services – is putting women’s and children’s lives at risk. Despite this, the government has now further entrenched this approach in a new Royal Decree.
Bopha and Sothy,* whose stories are shared with this article, are among these women. During this year’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, LICADHO stands with them in demanding justice and safety.
19 June 2023
Every day, there are people across Cambodia working tirelessly to defend everyone’s rights and freedoms. They do so in the face of relentless persecution, often at the hands of authorities.
These human rights defenders include farmers, company employees, and students who share in the struggles of their communities. Their efforts do not always receive the recognition they deserve, but remain immensely valuable in shaping the future.
15 June 2023
Prey Lang forest is the largest lowland evergreen forest in Southeast Asia and one of the most biodiverse forests in Cambodia, containing threatened animal and plant species alongside key sources of water for the country’s rivers. It houses the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, and was estimated to cover around 500,000 hectares. Prey Lang is also home to many people, including indigenous Kuy.
Prey Lang has played a critical part in the Kuy people’s lives and culture for generations. The very name “Prey Lang” translates to “Our Forest” in the Kuy language. But the forest is now besieged by illegal logging, and its existence is under threat. Deforestation has severely reduced the size of the forest. Exact figures are unavailable, but what remains of Prey Lang today is between 130,000 to 350,000 hectares.
15 June 2023
As the July 2023 National Election approaches, intimidation and scare tactics continue to be used to subdue the remaining advocates for a free and democratic Cambodia. Sexual harassment and physical violence are rampant tools in this suppression. Activists’ families suffer targeted attacks, and people retract support for them due to fear of backlash from authorities.
Prum Chantha and her family are among the many activists campaigning for political justice in Cambodia. Chantha is a prominent member of “Friday Women” – a group of women activists well-known for protesting to demand the release of their husbands who have been unjustly imprisoned for their political activity. Ahead of the upcoming National Election this July, their work is more vital than ever in helping hold accountable those who abuse their positions of power.
15 June 2023
Land grabbing, giveaways, and forced evictions remain rampant in Cambodia. Enormous swathes of land have been seized for the benefit of politically connected individuals and powerful corporations. Economic Land Concessions (ELCs) are large-scale land leases granted to companies for agro-industrial development and have been one of the primary cause of land conflicts – including forced evictions and land grabs – since the mid-2000s, impacting hundreds of thousands of people. Families have been forcibly displaced, and entire communities deprived of their homes, histories and livelihoods. Land activists and environmental defenders face severe backlash for speaking out against these vast land grabs and giveaways. Sem Sang is one of them.
“I was born in Srae Prang, and was originally a farmer,” Sang begins. Sang’s family, along with roughly 600 other families from several communities in Tbong Khmum province’s Dambae district, are embroiled in a decade-long dispute with Harmony Win Investment Co. Ltd., a Chinese-owned rubber company. The company’s occupation of the land has been supported and enforced by the state, and the company has since claimed the communities’ farmland and communal forests. Witnessing such violations encouraged Sang to act.
15 June 2023
The Kuy are one of an estimated 24 indigenous groups in Cambodia. Indigenous peoples’ rights are afforded special protection under Cambodian and international law, as they are especially vulnerable to land conflicts given that their cultures, livelihoods, and spiritualities are inextricably linked to their traditional lands and resources. After witnessing countless land rights violations against his Kuy community in Prame commune, Sut Savorn became involved in indigenous rights activism.
Savorn’s community – in addition to neighbouring others – have been embroiled in long-standing disputes with companies that have received Economic Land Concessions (ELCs) from the government. These ELCs – and other forms of state-sponsored land occupation – enable companies to develop land for agro-industrial development at the expense of the indigenous groups that live there. Companies such as Lan Feng (Cambodia) International and Hengfu Group Sugar Industry have proceeded to encroach upon, plough, and clear community land over the years. This land-grabbing has adversely affected indigenous communities’ homes, livelihoods, and sense of cultural security.
15 June 2023
The longest-running strike in Cambodian history has been underway in Phnom Penh since December 2021. It is headed by the women-led Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld (LRSU), and is in response to the mass layoff at the NagaWorld luxury casino complex in April 2021. The union’s President has been imprisoned since November 2022 and stood trial alongside eight other LRSU members and supporters charged with incitement. Chhim Sokhorn, a member of LRSU, was one of the nine women involved.
Although initially overwhelmed by her responsibilities, Sokhorn was heartened by the sense of community within LRSU. “I was seen as being actively involved with the union, so they chose me as a candidate. I had no intention to stand at first,” says Sokhorn. The April 2021 layoffs saw 1,329 people dismissed from their jobs. Around 1,100 (82%) of these people were involved with LRSU, including all its leaders and a significant number of its members.
15 June 2023
Cambodians hold the most microfinance debt per capita in the world. The average microloan is more than four times larger than the country’s median annual income, and a lack of regulation has allowed banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to generate profit at the expense of customers’ rights.
Years of predatory and reckless lending have created a debt crisis and human rights catastrophe. Systematic threats and intimidation are widely used by credit officers to shame or scare borrowers into selling land outside of the legal system, thus sparing MFIs and banks the hassle of collection proceedings. Land ownership is crucial to Cambodians’ survival, as it is key to their fundamental rights to food, housing, livelihoods, and more. Yet, more than 160,000 borrowers in Cambodia have sold land to repay microloans in the past five years – equal to one land sale every 16 minutes.
30 March 2023
More than 1,000 community members from Siem Reap, Koh Kong and Kampong Speu provinces gathered in Phnom Penh between 27 March and 29 March to petition for solutions to ongoing land disputes affecting their homes and livelihoods, in some cases facing restrictions on movement and assembly from local authorities.
Between 27 and 28 March, about 150 people from seven Siem Reap communities gathered in Phnom Penh, where representatives submitted petitions to the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of National Defence on behalf of approximately 10,000 families who live within Angkor Archaeological Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site that includes the temple of Angkor Wat. Their petitions included a request for the government to return land titles to community members, enact protections for the Kleang Tuek 78 reservoir, and provide fair compensation to those already affected by evictions within the site. The government has previously said the evictions are necessary to maintain the area’s UNESCO World Heritage status.
24 March 2023
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court this afternoon convicted Seam Pluk, co-founder of the Cambodia National Heart Party (CNHP), and twelve others on charges of forgery and use of forged documents under Articles 626, 627 and 628 of the Criminal Code. In addition to Pluk, who has been in detention since April 2022, three additional co-defendants were arrested hours before the verdict for unknown reasons.
The court sentenced Pluk to two years and six months in prison and imposed a fine of 5 million riel (USD $1,250), while the other 12 defendants received two-year sentences with the same fine. Warrants for their arrest were issued. The court provided no reasoning in its judgment.
3 March 2023
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court this morning convicted Kem Sokha, the former President of the dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), of treason and conspiracy with a foreign power under Articles 439 and 443 of the Criminal Code. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison, and immediately transferred to house arrest after being escorted from the courtroom by five police and security officers. His conviction comes less than five months prior to Cambodia’s 2023 National Election.
The court also ordered the permanent removal of Kem Sokha’s political rights to stand for or vote in an election as an additional penalty under Article 450 of the Criminal Code. The judgment stated that the level of damages is pending assessment, which is likely in relation to a civil action that may be filed in accordance with Article 22 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
23 February 2023
The Supreme Court this morning upheld the defamation conviction and financial penalty against Candlelight Vice President Son Chhay in relation to two complaints filed against him by the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and the National Election Committee (NEC) over public criticisms of the Commune Elections process.
Chhay was ordered to pay 4 billion riel (about $1 million) in compensation to the CPP and two other fines totalling 20 million riel (about $5,000), as previously ordered by the Appeal Court in December 2022. Two of Chhay’s properties have been frozen by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court since November to prevent him selling or transferring them, following a request from the CPP.
13 February 2023
The government this morning revoked the media operating licence of the Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM), parent of the bilingual outlet Voice of Democracy (VOD), one of Cambodia’s few remaining independent media outlets.
The Ministry of Information revoked the licence after Prime Minister Hun Sen and his son, army commander Hun Manet, took issue with a 9 February VOD article that featured reactions from various people. This included a comment from government spokesperson Phay Siphan regarding the claim that Hun Manet had signed an agreement providing financial assistance to Türkiye. Both Manet and the prime minister later took to social media to deny that Manet had signed the document.
22 December 2022
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court this morning convicted 36 former leaders, members and supporters of the forcibly dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) of plotting under Article 453 of the Criminal Code. The former opposition activists each received sentences ranging from five to seven years in prison, with only three activists receiving suspended sentences. Political rights of 11 activists were also suspended for a period of five years.
The political activists were convicted on the basis of their Facebook posts and recorded private phone calls regarding an attempt by Mu Sochua and other former CNRP leaders to return to Cambodia in January 2021 to stand trial in a separate mass trial. Sochua was denied boarding because the Cambodian government cancelled her passport and refused to issue her a visa for her country of birth.
14 December 2022
Nineteen villagers have been imprisoned in a series of arrests which started in September 2022 in connection to an ongoing land dispute with Sok Samnang Development Co., Ltd. in Oddar Meanchey’s Trapeang Prasath district.
Armed forces wielding batons mobilised to arrest eight villagers and oversaw houses being burned in the conflicted area in the latest violent episode on 9 and 10 December. Gendarmes – also known as military police – arrested five women and three men over the course of the two days. A video taken on 10 December shows gendarmeries wielding long batons while arresting a villager and intimidating others from filming. Other videos recorded by villagers that day show their houses in flames. White smoke from the remains of burned houses was still visible when LICADHO monitors arrived that evening.
1 August 2022
Online money lending networks are targeting Cambodian women on Facebook and Telegram, trapping them into growing debts and extorting them using naked photographs and videos. Social media companies and Cambodian authorities are failing to act, allowing these predatory groups to exploit women with impunity.
In the last year, LICADHO has provided services to three women who have been harassed by informal online lenders. Each with similar experiences, the women first borrowed sums as small as $50 to pay for daily expenses or medical care from groups advertising on Facebook, but ended up being blackmailed and extorted after sending naked photographs and videos in an attempt to escape the cycle of debt.
14 June 2022
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court this morning convicted former leaders, members and supporters of the dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) of plotting and incitement under Articles 453, 494 and 495 of the Criminal Code.
Twelve former CNRP leaders were convicted in absentia and handed prison sentences of eight years. Nineteen other members and supporters were each sentenced to six years in prison. The court issued detention warrants for these 31 people this morning.
7 March 2022
The 10 human rights defenders (HRDs) whose profiles are outlined below are leaders and members of the Labour Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld (LRSU). The unionists are all former employees of NagaWorld, a highly profitable, Malaysian-owned casino with an exclusive operating license in Phnom Penh.
These men and women are currently imprisoned in Correctional Center 2 (CC2) and Phnom Penh’s PJ prison.
18 January 2022
Today marks one month since workers from the Labor Rights Supported by Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld (LRSU) began striking and holding daily peaceful demonstrations in central Phnom Penh. Workers continue to strike to oppose the casino’s mass layoff of union members and leaders and improper compensation packages for longtime employees, among other issues.
28 June 2021
Right to Relief is a call for immediate action to be taken by microloan providers - both microfinance institutions (MFIs) and banks - as well as their international investors, including state development banks from Europe and the United States, to investigate the scope of human rights abuses and provide relief to borrowers who have suffered from predatory lending and collection practices. The research spans eight provinces in Cambodia, with each community profile featuring information about the community’s formation in response to a land conflict, and the threat to land tenure security and other human rights now posed by over-indebtedness.
A website features highlights from the 14 community profiles, while a PDF of the report contains more complete profiles and additional information about the project.