February 14, 2008By LAO MONG HAY
UPI Asia Online
Column: Rule by Fear
HONG KONG, China, The Cambodian government is bound by the Paris Peace Agreements that were concluded in 1991 to end a protracted war in the country. Under these agreements, a field office of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights was established in Cambodia, and the U.N. secretary-general appointed a special representative, all to monitor human rights conditions and help the Cambodian government honor its obligations under these agreements.
From the beginning, however, there has been friction between this U.N. field office and special representative on the one hand, and the Cambodian government on the other. The former has issued reports and statements critical of the latter's human rights performance and its disregard for recommendations on improving human rights.
The friction came into the open in 2006 and has since grown worse, as the Cambodian government has mounted continual attacks on the fourth special representative, Professor Yash Ghai from Kenya, for his public reports and statements critical of the human rights situation in Cambodia.
In a speech to a Human Rights Day rally on Dec. 10, Ghai, during his fourth visit to Cambodia, noted among other things a psychosis of fear among numerous communities and families, especially among those facing eviction due to land-grabbing: "fear of the state, fear of political and economic saboteurs, fear of greedy individuals and corporations, fear of the police and the courts."
In a statement at the end of his visit, he added that "state authorities, as well as companies and politically well-connected individuals, show scant respect for the rule of law" and that the courts and legal profession "have failed the people of Cambodia woefully."
Hun Sen, prime minister of Cambodia, took Ghai's remarks as an "insult" to the Cambodian people and government, and lashed out at him with diatribes, calling Ghai "deranged" and "a long-term tourist," for instance. He also threatened to close the U.N. field office. He then informed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the Cambodian government "is now considering whether the U.N. secretary-general's special representative is 'still necessary' as stipulated" in the Paris Peace Agreements. Hun Sen urged the United Nations to spend the money for human rights in Cambodia elsewhere.
However, in all their attacks on Ghai, Hun Sen and his officials have not disputed the veracity of his reports and statements on human rights conditions in the country. Reality has only confirmed what Ghai has noted. Seventeen years after the signing of the peace agreements the Cambodian government has not been able to honor many of its main obligations under these agreements. It has not taken effective measures to ensure that the policies and practices of ill-treatment and repression of the past shall never be allowed to return as stipulated in the agreements.
Although the Cambodian government has ratified many relevant international instruments, it has not ratified the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights whereby aggrieved persons can bring cases to the U.N. Human Rights Committee for adjudication if they are not satisfied with rulings by national adjudication bodies.
Furthermore, it has not established state institutions for liberal, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law worthy of their names. From top to bottom, all these institutions are under the control of the ruling party, the Cambodian People's Party. State power, as Ghai remarked in 2006, is very much concentrated in the hands of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is known as "the strongman of Cambodia."
Moreover, there is no independent judiciary to adjudicate and enforce human rights for aggrieved individuals. This legal institution is very much under political control as "99 percent of judges and prosecutors" are members of the ruling party. It is also widely acknowledged to be very corrupt as well. In addition, there is not an independent national human rights institution, ombudsman, anti-corruption body or police oversight agency which could help aggrieved individuals attain redress and bring human rights violators to justice.
Many of the fundamental rights enumerated in the peace agreements, such as freedom of assembly and association, due process and equality before the law and protection from the arbitrary deprivation of property or deprivation of private property without just compensation, have not been observed, respected or protected. Peaceful public demonstrations are practically banned. Land-grabbing is rife. In 2007, it affected more than 5,000 families who were forcibly evicted from their homes and land without just compensation.
The Cambodian government moreover has not supported the right of all Cambodian citizens to undertake activities which would promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms. Instead, human rights defenders frequently face threats and intimidation, or even death, when the government sees them as aligning with the opposition.
In such circumstances, and so long as Cambodia has not ratified the First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, nor honored its human rights obligations under the peace agreements nor established proper institutions for liberal, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law, especially an independent and impartial judiciary, the U.N. secretary-general's special representative for human rights in Cambodia is very necessary.
Whether Hun Sen and his government like him or not, this special representative, together with the field office of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, remain as the last and only bulwark for the protection of human rights in Cambodia.
Appeasing strongman Hun Sen at this juncture by ending Ghai's nomination, closing the U.N. field office and/or terminating the U.N. human rights mandate altogether would remove this bulwark and imperil human rights in Cambodia. The policies and practices of ill-treatment and repression of the past that the peace agreements had set out to prevent would then be free to terrorize the country with all the consequences the long-suffering Cambodian people know only too well.
--
(Lao Mong Hay is currently a senior researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. He was previously director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in 2003. In 1997, he received an award from Human Rights Watch and the Nansen Medal in 2000 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.)
UPI Asia Online
Column: Rule by Fear
HONG KONG, China, The Cambodian government is bound by the Paris Peace Agreements that were concluded in 1991 to end a protracted war in the country. Under these agreements, a field office of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights was established in Cambodia, and the U.N. secretary-general appointed a special representative, all to monitor human rights conditions and help the Cambodian government honor its obligations under these agreements.
From the beginning, however, there has been friction between this U.N. field office and special representative on the one hand, and the Cambodian government on the other. The former has issued reports and statements critical of the latter's human rights performance and its disregard for recommendations on improving human rights.
The friction came into the open in 2006 and has since grown worse, as the Cambodian government has mounted continual attacks on the fourth special representative, Professor Yash Ghai from Kenya, for his public reports and statements critical of the human rights situation in Cambodia.
In a speech to a Human Rights Day rally on Dec. 10, Ghai, during his fourth visit to Cambodia, noted among other things a psychosis of fear among numerous communities and families, especially among those facing eviction due to land-grabbing: "fear of the state, fear of political and economic saboteurs, fear of greedy individuals and corporations, fear of the police and the courts."
In a statement at the end of his visit, he added that "state authorities, as well as companies and politically well-connected individuals, show scant respect for the rule of law" and that the courts and legal profession "have failed the people of Cambodia woefully."
Hun Sen, prime minister of Cambodia, took Ghai's remarks as an "insult" to the Cambodian people and government, and lashed out at him with diatribes, calling Ghai "deranged" and "a long-term tourist," for instance. He also threatened to close the U.N. field office. He then informed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the Cambodian government "is now considering whether the U.N. secretary-general's special representative is 'still necessary' as stipulated" in the Paris Peace Agreements. Hun Sen urged the United Nations to spend the money for human rights in Cambodia elsewhere.
However, in all their attacks on Ghai, Hun Sen and his officials have not disputed the veracity of his reports and statements on human rights conditions in the country. Reality has only confirmed what Ghai has noted. Seventeen years after the signing of the peace agreements the Cambodian government has not been able to honor many of its main obligations under these agreements. It has not taken effective measures to ensure that the policies and practices of ill-treatment and repression of the past shall never be allowed to return as stipulated in the agreements.
Although the Cambodian government has ratified many relevant international instruments, it has not ratified the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights whereby aggrieved persons can bring cases to the U.N. Human Rights Committee for adjudication if they are not satisfied with rulings by national adjudication bodies.
Furthermore, it has not established state institutions for liberal, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law worthy of their names. From top to bottom, all these institutions are under the control of the ruling party, the Cambodian People's Party. State power, as Ghai remarked in 2006, is very much concentrated in the hands of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is known as "the strongman of Cambodia."
Moreover, there is no independent judiciary to adjudicate and enforce human rights for aggrieved individuals. This legal institution is very much under political control as "99 percent of judges and prosecutors" are members of the ruling party. It is also widely acknowledged to be very corrupt as well. In addition, there is not an independent national human rights institution, ombudsman, anti-corruption body or police oversight agency which could help aggrieved individuals attain redress and bring human rights violators to justice.
Many of the fundamental rights enumerated in the peace agreements, such as freedom of assembly and association, due process and equality before the law and protection from the arbitrary deprivation of property or deprivation of private property without just compensation, have not been observed, respected or protected. Peaceful public demonstrations are practically banned. Land-grabbing is rife. In 2007, it affected more than 5,000 families who were forcibly evicted from their homes and land without just compensation.
The Cambodian government moreover has not supported the right of all Cambodian citizens to undertake activities which would promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms. Instead, human rights defenders frequently face threats and intimidation, or even death, when the government sees them as aligning with the opposition.
In such circumstances, and so long as Cambodia has not ratified the First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, nor honored its human rights obligations under the peace agreements nor established proper institutions for liberal, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law, especially an independent and impartial judiciary, the U.N. secretary-general's special representative for human rights in Cambodia is very necessary.
Whether Hun Sen and his government like him or not, this special representative, together with the field office of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, remain as the last and only bulwark for the protection of human rights in Cambodia.
Appeasing strongman Hun Sen at this juncture by ending Ghai's nomination, closing the U.N. field office and/or terminating the U.N. human rights mandate altogether would remove this bulwark and imperil human rights in Cambodia. The policies and practices of ill-treatment and repression of the past that the peace agreements had set out to prevent would then be free to terrorize the country with all the consequences the long-suffering Cambodian people know only too well.
--
(Lao Mong Hay is currently a senior researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. He was previously director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in 2003. In 1997, he received an award from Human Rights Watch and the Nansen Medal in 2000 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.)
10 comments:
Man.. this guy called Hun Sen and his cronies; they are all ignorant, blind and brain dead. Down with them all. Long live Khmer and her peeps! Someone please rescue them ASAP!
How clever you are Dr Khmer !
http://www.stage6.com/user/alex857/video/1452500/Tiananmen-Square-documentary
What UN human right office can do, for Cambodian nowaday?
some of the commentators here are so obnoxious. everyone can help with a solution. don't just add more salt to the wound or throw more fuel into a burning fire. be constructive, if you want to help; otherwise, people don't like your attitude and they won't cooperate! get educated and help better cambodia, regardless who's in power; this is how you get the best of all people, not your pessimistic, and derogative view - that's not helpful. be serious, would ya! love your country by helping it to be better for everyone. thanks
How 3:06PM, by accepting our fellow Cambodia being evected, imprison, send to be impresoned in By Vietcong, killed?
Or it is Ok to Give land concession to Vietname ( remember Cosinchine or you just as well stupid?)
What educated if their no decent salary for teacher? Ok for our kid to leurned to accept bribery is a way of live? Give me a break!
Accept the uneducation ignoranced man as head of my Buddish religion? FUCK YOU STUPID COMMUNIST!
Your mother will wait for you in hell!
Let Ah Hun Xen and CPP chance and do and say some right thing and we will be helpfull to them1
If those mother fucker still kill and destroy our race, culture, and religion at least what we can do is inform eachother about their evil actions and curse them!
May Ah Kwang Makack, kwach in both eyes! for his killing of people!
KI Media is an international forum, we are fortunate that we can contribute ideas and expess our concerns.
I would like to express my understanding between the 1th Januay and the 91 Paris agreement like this: CPP can honor the 1th January as their rights to do so because it was the day that CPP received power offered by VN. And it did not end there, CPP has to be obedient to VN to stay in power.
About the 91 Paris agreement, without it many of you and I would not able to contact with people in Cambodia (families, friends and relatives). Without Paris agreement the city of P. Penh would not be like this today.
Believe me or not, without Paris agreement Cambodia would be remained like North Korea or worse than it until today. I appreciated The Paris agreement even though it still has not brought satisfactory to all of of the Cambodian people yet. I wondered how can some of us who are not born from CPP honor the 1th Januay the day that VN pretended to save Khmer when we all almost finished? 80% of my family diappeared, others nothing left.
I believed the Author has forgotten to mentioned that Cambodia is the only country in the world that allow a founder of political party who is sought by the court to answer on charged on pocketed money from the sell of political headquarter, to register its political party, operated the daily affairs of the party from self imposed exile life in Malaysia.
Dr. Lao Mong Hay spectacular chronologically narrated the moving backward of CPP leadership.
We can summarize CPP's strategies as follow:
1. They will reject, deny, or abolish the Paris Peace Agreement in October 23, 1991 in order to praise January 7, 1979 of VN invasion in Cambodia.
2. They are lying Cambodian peoples and expressing ungrateful attitude to the international donors because those funds flowing to Cambodia because of Paris Peace Agreement.
3. They are intending to abolish civil societies in Cambodia in order to promote dictatorship. We can observe, even though UN has been severely abused by CPP. What credit CPP has to abuse this world neutral organization. They have no credit at all, they do it in order to insult Cambodian peoples.
4. They are abusing Human Rights, Global Witness, and recently Amnasty International, without respecting their signature agreement in the Covenant at all.
Cambodian peoples are CPP's hostages for them to legitimize their power, to bargain for donations, and to insult the neutral international organizations.
CPP's leadership under Hun Sen's grip is good in manipulating Cambodian peoples.
KY
Very profound comments Khmer Young. I totally agree with you that the Communist Puppet Party has been trying to lie to Khmer for so many years. Most people forget what the 1991-peace accord brings to Cambodia and they remmember what they celebrate the invasion of Ah Youn on Jan. 7 1979. That is sick.
fuck both days! prepare for another one!
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