Results of HunSenomicsJuly 3, 2008
Jennifer Winstanley
The Huffington Post (USA)
In Cambodia today, more than 150,000 people are threatened with eviction. Forty-five percent of the country's entire landmass has been sold off - including the land around Angkor Wat, expansive forested areas, the colonial buildings of Phnom Penh and islands off the south coast.
People live on a large majority of this land and have lived on it for a long time. Their livelihood is often directly connected to where they live and all their social, physical and economic ties are settled around their homes. However, whatever legitimate possessory rights they may have to the land seem to matter very little when the military comes rolling in and burns up entire villages, loads everyone into trucks and drops them off in the middle of nowhere - relocating them in the name of "development". This eviction over a year ago of 84 families from a village in Sihanoukville on Cambodia's south coast is just one example.
The law is supposed to promote justice, and provide a structure that serves to protect peoples' rights and legal interests.... right? Yes. The land law in Cambodia however, has been used in direct contrast to all the good intentioned purposes that justify the existence of legal systems. As a law student I feel the need to defend on some level the legitimacy of the need for laws and a legal system, but sometimes the arguments seem weak in the face of the reality of how the law is being used - or not used.
The 2001 Cambodian land law is used as a tool to legitimize land-grabbing by a rich and powerful elite. The relocation of thousands of people, entire communities and villages, is done in support of economic advancement and there is little that the average Cambodian can do to protect their right to the land. There are a number of NGOs working on this issue (the Center on Housing Rights and Evictions and Bridges Across Borders being the two that I am most familiar with), particularly recently as the number of people affected is rising consistently. The focus of the work, as I understand it, is not to stop the evictions - a likely impossible task - but to ensure fair compensation and adequate relocation plans for those that are forced out of their homes to make way for five-star resorts and golf courses. The other focus of NGO work in this area is to stop the violence of the evictions which currently show blatant disregard for the welfare of those affected, and to help implement the law justly. The law should not be manipulated at the expense of the people.
I only became aware of the issue of evictions, forced evictions and the importance of the right to housing over the last year. It is increasingly visible and has become a major focus on the community legal education work that Bridges Across Borders does in Cambodia. I am still shocked, even after a year here, at the heartless greed that leads to this continuing unabated throughout the country, and I still find myself stunned at the utter inability of the law to provide a safeguard or some form of justice for those affected.
To end on a positive note, there is indication that the support for advocacy and education on housing rights and the land law is having an effect. A network of local community organizers recently presented the first nationwide petitions to the UNOHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) calling for a stop to the government practice of handing out 'economic land concessions' illegally to foreign firms and for the government to pass the anti-corruption law, which was drafted in 1994 and has still not been passed. The anti-corruption petition garnered over a million signatures across the country, showing a newly found will from the people of Cambodia to begin to use the legal system to their benefit.
Still, the will of the people seems to be derailed by the interests of the few, and as a aspiring social justice lawyer of the future as much as I hope that the legal system can prevail, I still see endless greed and corruption as an obstacle that will never cease to plague the ability of the law to work for those it is presumably meant to serve.
For more information and details on the Stop Evictions campaign, please click here.
People live on a large majority of this land and have lived on it for a long time. Their livelihood is often directly connected to where they live and all their social, physical and economic ties are settled around their homes. However, whatever legitimate possessory rights they may have to the land seem to matter very little when the military comes rolling in and burns up entire villages, loads everyone into trucks and drops them off in the middle of nowhere - relocating them in the name of "development". This eviction over a year ago of 84 families from a village in Sihanoukville on Cambodia's south coast is just one example.
The law is supposed to promote justice, and provide a structure that serves to protect peoples' rights and legal interests.... right? Yes. The land law in Cambodia however, has been used in direct contrast to all the good intentioned purposes that justify the existence of legal systems. As a law student I feel the need to defend on some level the legitimacy of the need for laws and a legal system, but sometimes the arguments seem weak in the face of the reality of how the law is being used - or not used.
The 2001 Cambodian land law is used as a tool to legitimize land-grabbing by a rich and powerful elite. The relocation of thousands of people, entire communities and villages, is done in support of economic advancement and there is little that the average Cambodian can do to protect their right to the land. There are a number of NGOs working on this issue (the Center on Housing Rights and Evictions and Bridges Across Borders being the two that I am most familiar with), particularly recently as the number of people affected is rising consistently. The focus of the work, as I understand it, is not to stop the evictions - a likely impossible task - but to ensure fair compensation and adequate relocation plans for those that are forced out of their homes to make way for five-star resorts and golf courses. The other focus of NGO work in this area is to stop the violence of the evictions which currently show blatant disregard for the welfare of those affected, and to help implement the law justly. The law should not be manipulated at the expense of the people.
I only became aware of the issue of evictions, forced evictions and the importance of the right to housing over the last year. It is increasingly visible and has become a major focus on the community legal education work that Bridges Across Borders does in Cambodia. I am still shocked, even after a year here, at the heartless greed that leads to this continuing unabated throughout the country, and I still find myself stunned at the utter inability of the law to provide a safeguard or some form of justice for those affected.
To end on a positive note, there is indication that the support for advocacy and education on housing rights and the land law is having an effect. A network of local community organizers recently presented the first nationwide petitions to the UNOHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) calling for a stop to the government practice of handing out 'economic land concessions' illegally to foreign firms and for the government to pass the anti-corruption law, which was drafted in 1994 and has still not been passed. The anti-corruption petition garnered over a million signatures across the country, showing a newly found will from the people of Cambodia to begin to use the legal system to their benefit.
Still, the will of the people seems to be derailed by the interests of the few, and as a aspiring social justice lawyer of the future as much as I hope that the legal system can prevail, I still see endless greed and corruption as an obstacle that will never cease to plague the ability of the law to work for those it is presumably meant to serve.
For more information and details on the Stop Evictions campaign, please click here.
18 comments:
Outstanding, it feels good to know that government is working for all of us by not allowing any squatters to get away with our land.
Furthermore, they should deported them back to Vietnam or something. I don't like to see my tax moneys feeding squatters.
khmer citizens should know their rights, and official shouldn't use too much force on citizens. sometime stepping overboard can create more problem then they are trying to control it.
The future of Cambodia is bleak. There is so far no real patriotic sentiment among the elite Khmers with guns and forces. These Khmer elites will harm the people and do great damage to the country only to enhence their lifestyle. They are a most irresponsible destructive citizens any society dread to have.
Khmer citizens are very happy under the leadership of PM Hun Sen, only Ah Khmer-Yuon who failed to steal our land are unsatisfied.
80% of Khmer living under Hun Xen's leadership are never happy. Those who are happy are the Khmer Yuons.
6:46AM ah koun mee sompheung youn nov Svai Paak district what is the khmer youn you mean? To me ah khmer knom youn or ah youn your self,just polute the KIMedia I can even read your fucking comment it doesn't make any senses,ah youn robbed Khmer land and people who live in that land called khmer kampuchea krom ah pleu !don't twist the story ah lob,no one believe with your stupid story ah koun mee sompheung youn with the thousand tuk asoch why you are so bezarr and stupid and always make the wrong comments ,go back to Hnoi where you are belong ah koun mee lightning strike at daylight
8:06 you hit the spot
good advices
Some bodies know the trict how to erase the youn 's spam out of the site
Prime minister ma ass ,it can't even read khmer languages except slave 's language give me a break
and shut your stinky mouth up,ah Hun Sen is blind and included his brain ,the hun sen brain work because you spy stay behind you know that ah pleu but the world already know what you and ah Hun Sen up to.
My God buddah help Hun Sen to get lung cancer and die at earle of his age?
correction ==>>earlier
FYI, 8:17, PM Hun Sen used more Khmer then the King does.
. . .but Hun Xen, a vulgar and arrogant man, uses only the Khmer language used by the barbarian like him.
It is the time that Cambodia will be soon part of Vietnam. The purchase law for foreigner owner is the goal of VN inwhich X-Vietnam can buy this land and the latetly they take this land very easy. CPP who love the nation please think this case again. Where will your children live near by the future?
What is the big deal? we are talking only 99 years lease. Hong Kong did it and it turns out fine.
Cambodian unpatriotic leaders are not like Chinese patriotic ones.
And who is patriotic and who is not? But more importantly, what war had they won?
So far we know the CPP has defeated the Khmer Rouge.
What about Ah infidel Scam Rainxy?
What about Lon Nol the so called patriotic general?
Hahahaha.... Look at how stupid Ah Karmen in Cambodia is. They a totally trapped by fancy word. If a fagot said he's patriotic, Ah Karmen will worshiped him, hahaha ....
No wonder why Cambodia is the smallest country in the region. They don't have no sense of the real world. They live in textbooks, rhetorics, and spins. Oh well, who needs land, when you have dream already.
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