26 July 2010 By Sopheap Chak
Global Voices Online
Sithi.org, a Cambodian human rights portal that aims to crowdsource and curate reports of human rights violations, officially launched on July 22, 2010 with participation from various institutions including embassies, international and local NGOs, media and university representatives.
Over the past year, the site has developed rapidly. A number of reports of human rights violations, relevant legal instruments and publications have been made available on the site. This expansion of information has been accompanied by an increase in the number of visitors — from 8,000 to over 33,000 in the six months since the site was documented for the Technology for Transparency Network.
Information available on Sithi has been quoted and used in critical analysis and assessment for human rights and development. “Reports prepared by other NGOs on The Rights of Indigenous People submitted to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination used two maps from Sithi.org to outline the extent of land problems facing indigenous people in Cambodia,” said Chor Chanthyda, Project Coordinator of Sithi, during her launch presentation. She adds that Economics Today also used Sithi’s development trend maps in reporting problems with land concessions.
There was much useful feedback from the participants concerning the site navigation, users' contributions, and security for those who contribute cases.
Despite this remarkable success, there is much room for discussion and improvement if the site is to reach its goal of raising more awareness about human rights abuses through collaborative advocacy. Though Sithi originally planned to allow the public to report and submit instances of human rights violations, only trusted NGO partners are currently permitted to participate in order to ensure data verification. Secondly, though the number of visitors is on the rise, the site is still not widely known. Finally, the site has been difficult to navigate, something the organization has attempted to address over the past year. During the launch, the team encouraged NGOs and individuals to suggest changes that would make the site even more user-friendly and to provide advice on creating a plan to train NGOs on how to contribute cases. Sithi's future plans include developing a more user-friendly platform and improving local language accessibility so that the site can maximize its potential benefit to Cambodian society.
2 comments:
when it comes to human rights, cambodia can improve and use all of the above. my love cambodia for reforming in many ways, finally. god bless cambodia.
Rectangular Strategy
Reform of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces
The Royal Government has implemented on schedule the reform programs and strengthened the capacity of the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. This includes the demobilization and the restructuring of combat units from divisions to battalions, the merger of battalions, the training of professional soldiers and experts, anti-terrorist training and mine clearance training, reform in the management of weapons and ammunitions, participation of the engineering units in the rehabilitation of infrastructure, and the training of RCAF units for participation in UN peacekeeping work, especially in mine clearance, engineering, the protection of security and social order, in particular in combating woman, child and drugs trafficking.
In the fourth legislature, the Royal Government will continue to reform the armed forces to ensure effective defense of sovereignty, territorial integrity, security and social order of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Based on the available resources and the evolving international and domestic security situation, the reform will focus on:
(1) Continued strengthening of the armed forces to be highly professional, capable of carrying on their designated missions by equipping them with technology and proper hardware, and by inspiring them to strictly abide by the laws, to respect human rights, to bear full loyalty to Nation, Religion, King, to sacrifice for territorial integrity and the interests of the nation and the people, to strengthen social, and moral norms, and always observe professional code of conduct, all in order to increase and maintain full public confidence in the armed forces.
(2) Continued improvement of cooperation among and between all categories of armed forces, and between the armed forces with other relevant ministries and agencies for the cause of peace, political stability, security, and national unity. The Royal Government will continue to promote the tradition of close relationship between the armed forces and people by strengthening the former's capacity in rescue and humanitarian operations, as well as in agricultural production. At the same time, the Royal Government will continue good cooperation with the international community in protecting and preserving peace and international security, in particular in preventing and cracking down on terrorism, and all kinds of transnational crimes, including drugs and human trafficking.
(3) Pursuit of the development of strategic plan for the National Police Forces aimed at enhancing their effective, commanding roles to fulfill all assigned functions by ensuring management of human, financial and other resources. The Royal Government will also accelerate the development Of the Law on the National Police Forces which will become a guiding framework, enshrining their rights, obligations, duties and responsibilities.
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