Source: Human Rights Watch
Cambodia's human rights record comes under its first Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on December 1, 2009 at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Under the process, the rights record of each member state is reviewed once every four years. Human Rights Watch's submission to the Human Rights Council focuses on Cambodia's track record on several core human rights issues. These include freedom of expression, association and assembly; impunity; judicial independence and rule of law; prisons and arbitrary detention; forced evictions and land confiscation; and refugees and asylum seekers.
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I. Summary
As a party to the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements and numerous international human rights treaties, Cambodia has committed itself to respect and protect the rights of all persons in Cambodia. While Cambodia has experienced strong economic growth since United Nations-brokered elections in 1993, the government has treated respect for human rights as an obstacle, rather than an aid, to development.
Cambodia's judiciary continues to lack independence, with authorities using the criminal justice system to silence critics. Freedom of expression and association are compromised as human rights defenders, journalists, trade unionists, and opposition party members face threats, intimidation and occasionally violence and imprisonment. Impunity is almost complete for human rights violations, whether on a large scale, such as the killing of hundreds of opposition party members in the run-up to the 1993 elections, the government's extrajudicial killing campaign after Prime Minister Hun Sen's 1997 coup, or in individual cases, such as the killing of journalists and labor activists. Many of those implicated in such abuses have been promoted to the highest ranks of the military and police. As a result, government critics continue to operate in a climate of fear.
Violence against women goes unpunished. Trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation is rampant. Thousands of urban poor are being forcibly evicted from their homes without proper redress, while farmers throughout the countryside are losing their land and their livelihoods to illegal logging and land concessions.
This submission focuses on core areas on which Human Rights Watch has conducted extensive research.
II. Human Rights Issues
A. Civil and Political Rights
The ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) of Prime Minister Hun Sen continues to maintain its grip on power through control and politicization of the army, police, military police, bodyguard units, civil service, the courts, election machinery, and electronic media.
Freedom of Expression, Association, and Assembly
The Cambodian government controls all television and most radio stations and regularly suspends, threatens, or takes legal action against journalists or news outlets that criticize the government. Freedom of speech is hampered by provisions in Cambodian law that allow individuals to be criminally prosecuted for peaceful expression of their views. Reporters risk dismissal, physical attack, and even death for covering controversial issues; for example the murder in July 2008 of opposition journalist Khim Sambo. The government confiscates, bans, or suspends controversial publications, such as reports by the international organization Global Witness that alleged complicity of top government officials in illegal logging.
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