Rights Groups Complain to New UN Council
By Douglas Gillison and Yun Samean
THE CAMBODIA DAILY
The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development and two local rights groups on Friday submitted a list of complaints about ongoing problems in Cambodia to the newly created UN Human Rights Council.
The rights council held the first day of its inaugural session in Geneva on Monday after the UN's Human Rights Commission, long criticized as ineffective, was abolished by the General Assembly in March,
Kek Galabru, founder and president of local rights group Licadho, which submitted the letter jointly with rights group Adhoc and the Bangkok-based Forum-Asia, said she hoped that scrutiny from the new UN council would shame the government into improving its record on protecting people's rights.
"I think that any country, if they did something wrong in their own country, hopes that nobody will know," Kek Galabru said. "We hope that this way maybe our government will be more responsible for their future actions," she said.
In a seven-page letter, Forum-Asia told the council that Cambodia's judiciary was incompetent and not sufficiently independent or transparent. The letter also warned of the potential for violence against human rights workers during upcoming elections and said draft laws on public assembly, NGOs and corruption, as well as recent changes to current statutes on defamation, were meant to curtail essential freedoms.
Forced evictions, such as the recent removal of families from Village 14 in Phnom Penh's Tonle Bassac commune, have resulted in arbitrary arrest, intimidation and injury, the letter states.
The letter called on the council to extend the mandate of the UN secretary-general's human rights envoy to Cambodia and to support the work of the UN's human rights office in Phnom Penh.
Om Yentieng, Prime Minister Hun Sen's adviser on human lights, dismissed the complaint.
"If the government had done what they say it has, there wouldn't be any NGOs in Cambodia," Om Yentieng said Monday. Rights workers often make long-winded statements that don't reflect the facts, he said. He also questioned rights organizations' claim to speak for the public. "Five NGOs want to represent five million people," he said. Despite Hun Sen's pledge last month to cooperate with the UN's human rights office, Om Yentieng would not say whether the government would continue to work with the office.
The rights council held the first day of its inaugural session in Geneva on Monday after the UN's Human Rights Commission, long criticized as ineffective, was abolished by the General Assembly in March,
Kek Galabru, founder and president of local rights group Licadho, which submitted the letter jointly with rights group Adhoc and the Bangkok-based Forum-Asia, said she hoped that scrutiny from the new UN council would shame the government into improving its record on protecting people's rights.
"I think that any country, if they did something wrong in their own country, hopes that nobody will know," Kek Galabru said. "We hope that this way maybe our government will be more responsible for their future actions," she said.
In a seven-page letter, Forum-Asia told the council that Cambodia's judiciary was incompetent and not sufficiently independent or transparent. The letter also warned of the potential for violence against human rights workers during upcoming elections and said draft laws on public assembly, NGOs and corruption, as well as recent changes to current statutes on defamation, were meant to curtail essential freedoms.
Forced evictions, such as the recent removal of families from Village 14 in Phnom Penh's Tonle Bassac commune, have resulted in arbitrary arrest, intimidation and injury, the letter states.
The letter called on the council to extend the mandate of the UN secretary-general's human rights envoy to Cambodia and to support the work of the UN's human rights office in Phnom Penh.
Om Yentieng, Prime Minister Hun Sen's adviser on human lights, dismissed the complaint.
"If the government had done what they say it has, there wouldn't be any NGOs in Cambodia," Om Yentieng said Monday. Rights workers often make long-winded statements that don't reflect the facts, he said. He also questioned rights organizations' claim to speak for the public. "Five NGOs want to represent five million people," he said. Despite Hun Sen's pledge last month to cooperate with the UN's human rights office, Om Yentieng would not say whether the government would continue to work with the office.
1 comment:
Yeah this should that how Cambodian are so stupid after many lies they still do it. I couldnt careless if this stupidily keep going, no matter how much others try to help it always some other stupid guys who spoiled.
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