NGOs condemn new Cambodia law

Organisations are calling on the Cambodian government to withdraw the draft law, which threatens to curtail their activities and 'contravenes international human rights laws'

Thursday 7 April 2011

Liz Ford

guardian.co.uk

Cambodian civil society groups and international NGOs have condemned a proposed new law that they claim will seriously curtail their activities.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Forum-Asia, Global Witness, the Federation of Human Rights Watch, Christian Aid, VSO and Save the Children, along with Cambodian farmers and indigenous rights groups, are among the organisations calling on the Cambodian government to withdraw the draft law, which will require all civil society groups working in the country to register in order to work, and appears ambiguous over rights to appeal. Local organisations will be required to have a specific number of members, will need to be headed by a Cambodian national, which will exclude refugees from forming an association and send the government annual reports.

The organisations are also calling on international donors to publicly express their opposition to the legislation.

The groups argue that the proposed legislation contravenes national and international human rights laws, will make NGOs subject to the whim of the government, and will undermine years of work to strengthen civil society. They also question the need for new legislation, arguing that existing laws are sufficient to govern civil society groups.

This week, 62 NGOs working in Cambodia wrote to government ministers to highlight their concerns following the publication of the second draft of the bill last month. The first draft was published in December. NGOs claim that their earlier concerns had not been taken on board by the government.

The Cambodian government has said the law will allow it to crack down on illegal activities by civil society groups and NGOs operating as a front for terrorist activities. It is understood ministers want the final draft of the law submitted this month, and for it to be passed by the end of the year.

In a briefing paper published when the law was first mooted, the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defence of Human Rights (Licadho) said the law had "nothing to do with crime, terrorism or transparency, but everything to do with political control".

"The recent experiences of many other countries which – like Cambodia – lack independent judiciaries and other institutions, have shown that NGO laws are regularly used to stifle criticism of the government by civil society, through such means as restrictive registration requirements and even criminal prosecution," it said.

In December, the group said the law "will undermine community development and democratic participation on a broad level, including having a potentially grave impact on the ability of grassroots communities to participate in their own development. There is a high risk that local officials will seek to use the law to suppress 'unwanted' activities by community-based groups or networks and individual community members themselves".

In January, 10 Cambodian civil society groups said the law "puts more burdens on civil society, which has been initiated and established through the commitment and willingness of local people".

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the law "could too easily be used to refuse registration or close down organisations that serve the public interest". He added: "Over the past 20 years the development of civil society has been one of Cambodia's few enduring achievements. This law threatens to reverse that progress."

Yap Swee-Seng, executive director of Forum-Asia, said: "When the draft law was first circulated, in December 2010, civil society raised urgent concerns that it would prove vulnerable to abuse by officials at the national, provincial and community level seeking to silence civil society criticism. Far from addressing these fears, the revisions introduced by the government make a bad situation worse."

Simon Taylor, director of Global Witness, added: "If donors stand by while the government adopts this law, they cannot in good conscience claim to be working in the interests of Cambodia's development objectives."

The international watchdog Freedom House described the proposed law as "fundamentally flawed". "The draft is also vague in scope and contains ambitious language that could make it easier for the government to arbitrarily shut down civil society groups or deny registration," it said.

In its Freedom in the World 2010 survey, the watchdog scored Cambodia five out of seven for its record on civil liberties – with one being the most free, seven the least free – saying that critics of the Cambodian People's party, which holds power, faced harassment.

In its annual review of human rights practices around the world, published in January, Human Rights Watch said the Cambodian government was making it increasingly difficult for human rights groups, trade unions and land rights activists to operate.