The Cambodian criminal justice system continues to silence voices. Late December, a leading staff member at the human rights group ADHOC was charged for his work, while a grassroot activist was sentenced to three years in prison for her peaceful protest. An unexpected Appeals Court decision on the 2004 killing of union leader Chea Vichea, sent two innocent men to prison.
On 1 October, the journalist and human rights defender Mam Sonando was sentenced to a 20-year prison term on spurious charges. The verdict followed a three-day trial last month, which failed to present any credible evidence in support of the allegations against him. The Court sentenced another 13 suspects in the case. Three of them were tried in absentia and received between 15 and 30 years in prison.
Ahead of Cambodia’s Government-Donor Coordination Committee meeting on 26 September, Civil Rights Defenders and seven other human rights groups sent a letter to Cambodia’s donors, including Sweden, urging them to make a coordinated and public condemnation of the government’s increasing human rights abuses.
About 60.000 people were forcibly evicted in Cambodia in 2011 alone, local human rights group ADHOC reports. Those who refuse to abandon their house or dare to demonstrate face risk of arrest or violence, and human rights defenders working on housing rights are persecuted. In a country where many non-governmental organisations are afraid to support human rights issues, Ee Sarom, and his organisation, stands tall. ”Sometimes I am scared but I have to do my job”, says Ee Sarom.
After the imprisonment of 15 human rights defenders in Cambodia in May 2012, a unique campaign: Free the 15, was sparked. Ee Sarom, from housing rights NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut, was one of several civil society leaders supporting the community’s mobilisation for the release of the activists. Listen to his story.
In May, police arrested 15 human rights defenders in Phnom Penh. Within days, 13 of them had been convicted to each 2.5 years in prison in an unfair trial. In the past several years, they have carried out peaceful protests against forced evictions and unlawful expropriation of land. Ee Sarom at Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) tells his story about the “Free the 15” and the increasingly tough conditions for human rights defenders in Cambodia, in this autumn’s first seminar in our series “One hour of human rights”!
Thirteen human rights defenders in Cambodia were released today following an appeal court decision on June 27, in Phnom Penh. The judges decided to uphold the verdict from the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, claiming the women were still found guilty of “occupying state land and obstructing public officials in aggravating circumstances “.
Civil Rights Defenders and several other human rights organisations demand ambassadors in Cambodia to send observers to the appeal hearing for 13 land and housing rights activists on June 27. The organisations also call for the case to be dismissed and the activists to be immediately and unconditionally released.
Several people have been sent to prison in connection to the protests against land grabbing in Cambodia. Civil Rights Defenders urges the Cambodian authorities to respect the right to freedom of expression and assembly, as previously reported. This video about land grabbing in Cambodia was displayed at the UN Sustainable Development Conference in Rio 21-22 of June.
On May 31 children wearing pictures of relatives gathered outside the Ministry of Justice to protest against the imprisonment of their mothers. The 13 women human rights defenders are seen as informal leaders for the protests against expropriation and forced evictions held in the Boeung Kak Lake area in central Phnom Penh and were convicted to prison terms in an unjust trial. Another two community leaders are facing trial.
Thirteen women human rights defenders in Cambodia have been sentenced to prison terms. They have played a leading role in peaceful protesting against expropriation and forced evictions in the Boeung Kak Lake area in central Phnom Penh. Civil Rights Defenders urges the authorities vacate the conviction and unconditionally release the women.
Om May 24, the Cambodian monk and human rights defender, Luon Sovath, was detained after documenting protests outside the Phnom Penh municipal court. Luon Sovath was released in the evening the same day but 13 other human rights defenders were sentenced to prison.
Buddhist monk Venerable Luon Sovath is one of three finalists for the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for human rights defenders, announced on 24 April in Geneva. Venerable Sovath was nominated by Civil Rights Defenders, WITNESS and Freedom House.
The Cambodian government should abandon the fourth draft law on NGOs. Read the statement we signed together with a group of international human rights organisations.
On December 20, Cambodians from the country’s 24 provinces carried a 230 meter long “kramar”, a traditional scarf, with over 10,000 signatures requesting the Parliament to stop the bill that restricts civil rights and freedoms.
We urge the Cambodian authorities to immediately withdraw the drafted NGO law. The law violates the rights to freedom of association and expression, Civil Rights Defenders and several other human rights organsiations say in a joint statement.
The EU has demanded from the Cambodian Government to ensure that a law on NGOs encourages, rather than restricts, the growth of civil society, says Catherine Ashton, High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
In an open letter we urge Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt to increase the pressure on the Cambodian government to abandon plans for a repressive law on NGO:s. We have previously warned that the law’s real purpose is to give the government a tool to silence inconvenient voices.
Natasha Jevtic Esbjörnson
Phone: +46 76 576 27 62
His burnt body was returned to the family in a plastic bag. The European Court has found Russia responsible for human rights violations in the North Caucasus, in more than one hundred cases, as a result of our work.
(Photo: Joanna Kurosz)
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