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Statement | CSOs call on the Royal Government of Cambodia to repeal the sub-decree on the establishment of the National Internet Gateway19 February 2021
We, the undersigned civil society groups, are seriously concerned about the sub-decree on the establishment of the national internet gateway (NIG) issued on Monday, 16 February, and call on the government to immediately repeal this sub-decree.
18 December 2020
The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) today is releasing “The Fight for Freedom: Attacks on Human Rights Defenders, 2018-2020”.“The Fight for Freedom” is not an exhaustive list of all attacks targeting human rights defenders since the beginning of 2018. Instead, it highlights a number of high-profile cases where human rights defenders have been targeted for intimidation, arrest or imprisonment while trying to peacefully exercise their rights to association, assembly and expression as guaranteed both in Cambodia’s constitution and under international law.
23 July 2020
Amnesty International and the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) call on the Royal Government of Cambodia to follow through with its commitment to address prison overcrowding by releasing prisoners accused of non-violent crimes, including those at heightened risk of COVID-19 and people held for minor offenses, as well as women incarcerated with their children and detainees who are under 18.
In May, Cambodia’s new Minister of Justice Koeut Rith announced a range of reforms to Cambodia’s justice system. These promised reforms were intended to address the severe backlog of pending cases in Cambodia’s courts and the extreme overcrowding in its prisons through the expansion of alternatives to incarceration, including bail and suspended sentences, in addition to early and conditional release for current prisoners.
30 January 2019
Cambodia’s human rights record comes under review at the UN Human Rights Council today as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process.
LICADHO contributed to two joint submissions with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Forum-Asia which catalogue state repression of human rights defenders, media and civil society, as well as the human cost of rampant land grabbing.
5 October 2018
Cambodia’s new repressive lèse majesté law was used for the first time yesterday to convict a former opposition party official who was handed a one year sentence.
Ban Somphy, a 70-year-old barber and former district leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was detained on 20 May 2018. He was accused of sharing a Facebook post allegedly criticising King Norodom Sihamoni which included a picture of Prime Minister Hun Sen and his wife and a video of angry villagers affected by flooding.
He was sentenced by Siem Reap provincial court under Criminal Code article 437 bis which was amended by the National Assembly in February amid strong opposition from civil society groups who warned that it would be used to silence government critics.
21 February 2018
We, the undersigned organizations and communities, express our grave concern regarding the Royal Government of Cambodia's proposed amendments to the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, as well as the proposed introduction of a lèse-majesté offense to Cambodia’s Criminal Code. These proposed amendments constitute a severe threat to human rights and fundamental freedoms, and are clearly designed to further criminalize any individual or entity that dares to express legitimate dissent. We are deeply concerned by this cynical attempt to deny the Cambodian people the fundamental freedoms to which they are entitled, and call for the outright rejection of these proposed amendments.
3 July 2017
As Cambodia’s human rights situation continues to backslide, exposing and speaking out against state-perpetrated abuses is ever more crucial. In the last two years, however, human rights defenders and other critical or independent voices have been among the main victims of Cambodia’s fractious political situation.
In this latest in a series of briefing papers, LICADHO sets out threats facing those who stand up for human rights in today’s Cambodia. Long-standing tactics used to silence human rights defenders – judicial harassment by a politicized court system; state-sponsored violence; and intolerance of peaceful protest – have been reinforced by new incapacitating laws and targeted digital surveillance. Although the examples presented in this paper are by no means exhaustive, taken together they provide a snapshot into the kinds of abuses that human rights defenders have been routinely subjected to in Cambodia over the last two years.
20 February 2017
Today, the ruling-party members of the National Assembly approved amendments to the Law on Political Parties in a session boycotted by the opposition.
A draft of the law that became publicly available earlier this month contained articles creating unprecedented powers for the Supreme Court to dissolve political parties and ban political leaders for five years, at the request of the Ministry of Interior, on vague and ill-defined grounds such as potential harm to “national unity”. The process has no hearing and explicitly forbids appeal.
The law would allow the Ministry of Interior to suspend political parties for a time period with no maximum duration. The law would also ban individuals with any conviction, spent or unspent, carrying a non-suspended custodial sentence from holding official roles within political parties.
4 April 2016
This morning, at least two trade unionists were injured as a peaceful gathering near Cambodia's National Assembly to protest the draft Trade Union Law (TUL) was violently broken up by authorities.
About 50 unionists from various unions and associations were prevented from gathering outside the National Assembly by roadblocks and over 100 mixed police forces. As they peacefully assembled in front of the roadblock, the group was suddenly and violently dispersed by about 30 para-police. Sut Chet, from the Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW), was chased and beaten around the head by a group of para-police. Chea Udom, also from CUMW, was also beaten as he tried to help him. Police standing nearby did nothing to stop the violence.
The draft law will be voted on by the National Assembly later today. It has been subject to ongoing national and international criticism, including a UN legal analysis which concluded that the TUL violated national and international law.
31 March 2016
Behind a façade of “technical” intent, the new Law on Telecommunications (Telecoms Law) poses a severe threat to freedom of expression in Cambodia, targeting not only online public expression but also any private communications made using telecommunications devices.
In a briefing paper released today, LICADHO analyses the law’s most egregious provisions – which, among others, allow the government to secretly intrude into the private lives of individuals, destroy evidence before criminal trials, and seize control of the entire telecoms industry if arbitrarily deemed warranted. Its excessive measures, particularly those creating new criminal offenses, reveal the true intent of the law: to intimidate individuals, punish the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms and quash individual and group dissent.
4 July 2015
The CPP, Cambodia’s ruling party, has announced its intention to hold an extraordinary session of the National Assembly on July 10th, during which members of parliament will vote on whether to pass the Law on Associations and NGOs (LANGO). For the past three months Cambodian civil society has been voicing its opposition to the law and between June 28 and 30, numerous grassroots groups, networks and NGOs conducted a spirited 3-day campaign to protest against the LANGO and also the draft Trade Union Law. Both laws have been widely criticised in Cambodia and abroad for the threat they represent to Cambodian civil society. This music video shows some of the campaign events at which activists and civil society members sang and danced to a classic Cambodian pop song “I Don’t Accept It”. The lyrics were specially rewritten by Cambodian youths and Boeung Kak activists to express their rejection of the laws and to assert their right to gather and express themselves freely.
23 June 2015
At 8:30 am today, hundreds of civil society members gathered peacefully in front of the National Assembly, before marching to call for the withdrawal of the draft Law on Associations & Non-Governmental Organizations (LANGO) and protest against the draft Trade Union Law (TUL). The protestors comprised around 250 youths, farmers, land-activists, NGOs, media, monks and citizens.
Protestors held banners saying “We will not vote for a party that passes LANGO” and “Say NO to Union, Association & NGO laws”, shouted anti-LANGO slogans, and sang songs. The National Assembly Permanent Standing Committee is expected to meet today to decide which National Assembly Commission will review LANGO.
17 June 2015
The draft Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations (LANGO) obtained in June 2015 will establish mandatory registration for all domestic and international associations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), criminalizing all activities by unregistered membership organizations. The requirement to register appears all encompassing and could be interpreted to apply to all organizations from grassroots groups and community based organisations up to major international organizations. Mandatory registration could have a particularly severe impact on the freedom of association of grassroots groups and community based organizations.
This memo is a specific breakdown of the key provisions within the approved draft law that have worsened since the December 2011 draft, and the potential impacts on groups operating in Cambodia.
18 September 2014
Today, CLEC and LICADHO release a legal analysis of the latest draft of the Law on Unions of Enterprises (Trade Union Law) obtained at the end of May, this year. As unions yesterday began a nationwide campaign for a $177 per month minimum wage, the draft Trade Union Law underlines the government’s intent to interfere with and infringe upon union formation and activities.
4 July 2014
Today the Constitutional Council declared that three new laws on the judiciary, the Law on the Organization of the Courts, the Law on the Organization and Functioning of the Supreme Council of Magistracy, and the Statute of Judges and Prosecutors, are consistent with the Cambodian constitution and can therefore be promulgated, following approval by the King.
In a statement released last month, LICADHO urged the Constitutional Council to reject the laws as they are currently drafted on the grounds that they do not comply with the constitution: whilst the constitution protects the independence of the judiciary, the three laws will improperly legitimize and entrench government control over the courts and judges.
The laws were approved earlier this year by the National Assembly and the Senate. No public consultations were carried out on the draft laws and as a result of the almost year-long boycott of the National Assembly by opposition party members, they have been subjected to no proper legislative scrutiny.
15 June 2014
On the anniversary of Cambodia’s Constitutional Council, LICADHO urges the Council to reject the three new laws affecting the judiciary in their current form. The Cambodian Constitution mandates that “Judicial power shall be an independent power,” and necessary implementing legislation has long been called for to strengthen the rule of law. However, passage of these laws in their current form will codify and indefinitely prolong the lack of independence currently undermining the Cambodian justice system.
10 June 2013
Cambodia’s National Assembly – its key legislative organ – has been thrust into a Constitutional crisis less than two months before the country’s national elections. Last week, the National Assembly’s Permanent Committee, which is comprised entirely of ruling Cambodia People’s Party members, stripped all 29 opposition party members of their parliamentary status. Because this expulsion took place within 6 months of a national election, the seats left empty by the purged parliamentarians were effectively terminated and will remain so under until after the election.
13 December 2012
The government has issued a new circular ordering the closure of all Internet cafes within a 500 meter radius of schools and educational institutions – an order that, if implemented, would amount to a near-complete ban on such businesses in central Phnom Penh.
The circular, issued by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications on November 12, 2012, also provides for further restrictions not limited by this school buffer zone. All Internet cafes are also required to forbid playing “all kinds of games,” essentially equating such activity with viewing pornography or committing crimes
23 July 2012
Late last year, the Cambodian government quietly released a draft Law on the Management and Use of Agricultural Land that would have serious implications for private landholders. The draft law as currently written could be used as legal cover for land-grabbing and for those who wish to exploit and personally profit from Cambodia's land and resources. Most alarmingly, the law creates felony criminal liability for any actions that violate the law's far reaching provisions. The following aspects of the draft law require immediate scrutiny and substantial revisions.
9 May 2012
New government regulations take the important step of banning the export of prison-made goods, but fall short of fully protecting inmates from exploitation by private firms, according to a new briefing from LICADHO.
LICADHO believes that the export ban is an important step in protecting Cambodia's reputation as a reputable supplier in the international garment industry. But the prakas fails to fully ban private firms from using prison labor for domestic production, which leaves prisoners open to systematic rights violations.