DPA
Phnom Penh - A leading rights group warned Thursday that Cambodia's new penal code, which is to be enacted this week, could be used to criminalize freedom of expression.
Speaking ahead of Friday's International Human Rights Day, Licadho director Naly Pilorge said the law contained a number of clauses that could result in fines and imprisonment for people speaking out.
'Unfortunately, with the new penal code taking effect on December 10, we may see two or three steps backward for 2011,' she said.
Pilorge said that from Friday, comments like those made this year by UN human rights head Navi Pillay, who criticized Cambodian court judgements against the leader of the opposition and a senior member of his party, could see the person making them jailed for up to six months.
In a brief accompanying report, Licadho said it was concerned the 'courts will stretch this provision to include literally anything the judiciary does and thus criminalize all criticism of the judiciary.'
'The scope of these provisions is breathtaking,' Licadho president Pung Chhiv Kek said.
The organization identified nine sections in the law that it said could pose 'a serious threat' to people's right to speak out.
Among them was the 'vague and highly subjective' definition of contempt, which carries a jail term of up to six days.
'Taken to the extreme, the article essentially criminalizes all acts which hurt the feelings of public officials,' it said, adding that the provision could be used in land evictions to detain community activists or people who insult police when their land is taken from them.
This year, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights to Cambodia Surya Subedi noted that the judiciary was failing in key areas. Such comments could now see him jailed if repeated under the new laws, Licadho said.
The Cambodian government has been criticized in recent years for its thin-skinned approach to dealing with its critics and repeated efforts to clamp down on its detractors in politics, civil society and the media.
3 comments:
not necessarily. this opinion from rights group seemed so bias, so one-sided. i would like to hear what the other side had to argue about as well. it is good gov't came up with a penal code to control abusive, verbal people that do not respect the law, the authority, etc... cambodia cannot let them become too unruly and too chaotic in their attack against authority. if they're not happy, they should point out the law, but never take law into their own hands. you never win with the law! that said, stop being so biased in your view, ok! the article should point out both sides of the arguments, not just one a biased political group with an agenda like this, ok! people aren't stupid, ok. we all can read too, ok!
i'm not surprise hearing from biased rights group! where is the other side of the story or argument? so bias! don't buy into their biased claim, that's why they are called "rights group"! bias group!!!!!!!!!!
fool above try to ask ah kwack Hun Xen who responsible for koh Pich-Moronak tragedy??????
that is the dead fault?
Is the victime fault?
The poor deserve to be poorer?
What can we do we got our PhD for free, from Hanoi!
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