Cambodia’s Human Rights deteriorated in 2009
New York based-Human Rights Watch released a “World Report 2010” said 2009 Cambodia’s Human rights deteriorated when the government misused the judiciary to silence government critics, attacked human rights defenders, tightened restrictions on press freedom, and abandoned its international obligations to project refugees.
The report read that “the ruling Cambodian People’s Party of Prime Minister Hun Sen continued to use an array of repressive tactics, including harassment, threats, violence, and arbitrary arrest, to suppress political rivals, opposition journalists, land rights activists, and trade unionists. In late 2009 the government pushed new laws through the National Assembly with little input from civil society, including a new penal code.”
Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, was quoted by the Cambodia Daily as saying that “the report was ‘misleading and shoddy in quality.’ It’s not a scientific report.” He added that in the case of defamation suits, the court is simply carrying out the law and that in evictions, the government is careful to make sure proper arrangement for alternative housing and access to loans is made available.
“Cambodians who speak out to defend their homes, their jobs, and their rights face threats, jail, and physical attacks,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“The only way that the Cambodian government will end its assault on civil society is if influential governments and donors demand real change and put the pressure on,” said Adams.
UN envoy for Human Rights Surya Subedi spoke before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in October that the Cambodia judiciary lacked independence, an observation that has been shared by all previous human rights envoys.`
The government controls all television and most radio stations. It regularly suspends, threatens, or takes legal action against journalists or news outlets that criticize the government. Controversial publications are frequently banned or confiscated. Reporters covering sensitive issues risk dismissal, imprisonment, physical attack, or even death. Politically motivated murders of opposition journalists, such as Khim Sambo, who was killed in July 2008, and many others in the past 15 years remain unresolved, according to the report.
The group noted more than 60 community activists arrested or awaiting trial and at least 10 government critics, including four journalists and several opposition party members, who were sued for criminal defamation or disinformation, reported VOA.
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All problems in Cambodia, including poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses, are interrelated to the country tragic recent past, namely, the Khmer Rouge and the use of Cambodia as turf for Cold War adversaries.