By Sok Serey
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy
On Wednesday, officials from the US-based Freedom House indicated that this organization considers political freedom in Cambodia to relatively good, however, the rule of law, the freedom of expression and protests are still weak.
These issues were raised during an open meeting between representatives of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC) and Mrs. Lisa Davis, deputy director of the human rights and democracy program for the Freedom House organization.
Lisa Davis said that her visit (to Cambodia) was also made to review the freedom of political parties for the election campaign and the participation in the upcoming July 2008 election.
She also indicated that Freedom House gave Cambodia a score of 6 in terms of political freedom rights, however, Cambodia scores the lowest when it comes to the rule of law. Nevertheless, Cambodia still has a lot of opportunities to improve these scores in the future. Freedom House visited Cambodia based on an invitation by the USAID agency.
Regarding the issue raised about, Thon Saray, CHRAC director who also participated in the open meeting, said: “The Freedom House organization seems to be well known in the world for ranking the freedom rights in each country.”
A source indicated that three Freedom House representatives led by Thomas Melia, arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday, and they will continue their visit until the end of this week.
Om Yen Tieng, Hun Sen’s senior advisor and chairman of the Cambodian government Human Rights commission, said that he has plan to meet and discuss with Freedom House representatives on Thursday of this week.
There is no immediate reaction from the government yet about the evaluation provided by Freedom House representatives.
Ou Virak, director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), who just met with the Freedom House delegation, said: “There were numerous instance of prevention against opinion forums organized by CCHR in 2007.”
The visit of Freedom House representatives coincides with the visit of Prof. Yash Ghai, the UN Special Envoy on Human Rights in Cambodia, to Cambodia. Prof. Ghai will remain in Cambodia for 10 days, until 10 December 2007, in order to review the situation of human rights and land disputes in Cambodia.
Prof. Ghai met with civil society organizations, and he also requested to meet with prime minister Hun Sen and vice-prime minister Sok San, as well as a number of other government officials. However, a source indicated that Prof. Ghai’s request did not receive any reply yet from the government.
These issues were raised during an open meeting between representatives of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC) and Mrs. Lisa Davis, deputy director of the human rights and democracy program for the Freedom House organization.
Lisa Davis said that her visit (to Cambodia) was also made to review the freedom of political parties for the election campaign and the participation in the upcoming July 2008 election.
She also indicated that Freedom House gave Cambodia a score of 6 in terms of political freedom rights, however, Cambodia scores the lowest when it comes to the rule of law. Nevertheless, Cambodia still has a lot of opportunities to improve these scores in the future. Freedom House visited Cambodia based on an invitation by the USAID agency.
Regarding the issue raised about, Thon Saray, CHRAC director who also participated in the open meeting, said: “The Freedom House organization seems to be well known in the world for ranking the freedom rights in each country.”
A source indicated that three Freedom House representatives led by Thomas Melia, arrived in Cambodia on Tuesday, and they will continue their visit until the end of this week.
Om Yen Tieng, Hun Sen’s senior advisor and chairman of the Cambodian government Human Rights commission, said that he has plan to meet and discuss with Freedom House representatives on Thursday of this week.
There is no immediate reaction from the government yet about the evaluation provided by Freedom House representatives.
Ou Virak, director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), who just met with the Freedom House delegation, said: “There were numerous instance of prevention against opinion forums organized by CCHR in 2007.”
The visit of Freedom House representatives coincides with the visit of Prof. Yash Ghai, the UN Special Envoy on Human Rights in Cambodia, to Cambodia. Prof. Ghai will remain in Cambodia for 10 days, until 10 December 2007, in order to review the situation of human rights and land disputes in Cambodia.
Prof. Ghai met with civil society organizations, and he also requested to meet with prime minister Hun Sen and vice-prime minister Sok San, as well as a number of other government officials. However, a source indicated that Prof. Ghai’s request did not receive any reply yet from the government.
1 comment:
Sound fair enough, but we are Asian, and we will never go along with anything that will offended our society. However, we'll continued to make progress in area that will not hindered our economy.
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