UN envoy focuses on land disputes in Cambodia

Controversial land concessions are causing human rights disputes in Cambodia, UN envoy Surya Subedi says.

01 Oct 2012
ABC Radio Australia

Audio: UN envoy, Surya Subedi, calls for human rights attention in Cambodia (ABC News)

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A UN envoy has called on the international community to pay more attention to human rights issues in Cambodia.

The call comes amid ongoing land disputes and legal harassment of activists.

Surya Subedi is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia and has submitted a detailed report on land rights to the UN Human Rights Council, following a visit in May.

"I met with a number of groups of villages who did not know what was happening to the land around them, so some of them came to know only when a company representative appeared on the side [of the road] telling them that land had granted to them in concession," Mr Subedi told Connect Asia.

"Then the villages, they started to protest."

Mr Subedi noted the negative effects of economic land concessions - which are large parcels of land granted by the government, supposedly for plantations or other big projects that often result in farmers being forcibly evicted.

He says a lack of consultation with farmers about land concessions and a lack of proper compensation were the main sources of tension.

And he warned Cambodia's economic growth needed to be better managed.

"Overall, the economic outlook looks better, and when you just look at the crude figure, but if you start scratching the surface, then you come across all sorts of inequalities within the country, that has been my concern," he said.