Housing rights violations pose challenge for ASEAN human rights body

Forced eviction in Cambodia (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Sunday, September 19, 2010
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

COHRE said that in Cambodia, land and housing rights violations have become one of the most prevalent forms of human rights violation following the destruction of the country’s land and property records in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge rule. Tens of thousands have been dispossessed of their lands, dwellings and properties by powerful economic and political forces identified with the country’s elite and their allies in big business. For example, more than 3,000 families living around Boeung Kak Lake in Phnom Penh have suffered or are currently threatened with forced eviction in the context of a land development project that involves filling the lake.

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), an international human rights organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, on Sunday called on the newly-established ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to seriously address housing rights violations in the region.

The call came as the AICHR meets in Kuala Lumpur in its second-ever meeting, after being established by ASEAN in October 2009.

Since its establishment, the Commission has been dogged by criticism that it is “toothless”, as it does not have the power to investigate cases of human rights violations in the region.

“Tens of millions of people in Southeast Asia today endure various levels of housing rights violations and insecurity of tenure. Most of them are poor and the vulnerable,” said Sammy Gamboa, COHRE’s Asia Programme Officer, speaking from the site of the meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

According to COHRE, housing rights violations – including forced evictions – continue to be one of the most intractable human rights issues in the region, and a major human rights challenge for the Commission in the region.

“It will be interesting to see how the AICHR – ostensibly set up to apply, promote and protect human rights in Southeast Asia – will handle the housing rights crisis in the region, which is mainly a result of a regional governments’ economic and development policies, widespread poverty, and marginalization and exclusion of the majority of Southeast Asia’s poor,” said Sammy Gamboa.

COHRE warned the AICHR that the construction of mega-projects and resource-extraction activities dispossess vulnerable people of their homes and land, and push them away from sources of subsistence.

The organization said that violations of the right to adequate housing are compounded by the prevailing climate of impunity in the region, along with widespread corruption in many ASEAN countries.

COHRE said that in Cambodia, land and housing rights violations have become one of the most prevalent forms of human rights violation following the destruction of the country’s land and property records in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge rule. Tens of thousands have been dispossessed of their lands, dwellings and properties by powerful economic and political forces identified with the country’s elite and their allies in big business. For example, more than 3,000 families living around Boeung Kak Lake in Phnom Penh have suffered or are currently threatened with forced eviction in the context of a land development project that involves filling the lake.

In the Philippines, COHRE welcomed the commitment of the new Philippine government to respect the rights of the urban poor to adequate housing, according to a pledge made by newly-installed President Benigno Aquino Jr. during the May election campaign. However, COHRE remains concerned that demolitions and forced evictions continue to take place in Manila and Quezon City, and around 400,000 families in Metro Manila are threatened with forced eviction. This includes 60,000 families in the Manggahan Floodway, targeted for displacement, and in the Pasig River area, where the homes of 40,000 families are set to be demolished.

In Myanmar, hundreds of thousands have suffered various levels of housing and other human rights violations. Mega-projects reportedly being funded by foreign investment (gas pipelines, mega-dams and large-scale mining) often lead to large-scale displacement and widespread destruction of homes, properties and livelihoods. For example, a proposed five-dam cascade on the Salween River directly threatens the livelihoods of over 70,000 people. Mounting incidents of military abuses, forced relocation, forced labour and land confiscation at the dam sites are being reported.

“The establishment of the AICHR last year raised hopes and guarded optimism for human rights in Southeast Asia, and we welcome the AICHR’s engagement with human rights movements in the region,” said Sammy Gamboa.

“However, almost a year has now passed, and efforts to make the AICHR effective and truly work for the promotion and protection of human rights in the region still have a long way to go.”

COHRE called on the AICHR to effectively address the region-wide problem of housing rights violations, including forced evictions, that continue to be one of the intractable human rights issues in the region

It also urged ASEAN member-states to ratify the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), including its Optional Protocol.

COHRE reminded ASEAN governments in the Philippines, Cambodia and Indonesia that they must comply with their treaty obligations under the ICESCR , including the implementation of recommendations and concluding observations, particularly on the right to adequate housing and against forced evictions.

It furtherd said that the AICHR needed to establish a protection mandate and subsequent mechanism for the effective redress of human rights violations, including violations of housing and other human rights.

The AICHR must develop and elaborate additional protocols related to the right to adequate housing, in keeping with existing international human rights standards, COHRE said

Last, it called on the AICHR to particularly address the rights and needs of women, children and migrant workers in the region, who are often disproportionately impacted by housing rights violations, including forced evictions.

World Bank agrees to full investigation into land activities in Cambodia

House dismantling in Boeung Kak Lake (Photo: Nicolas Axelrod)

28 April 2010
Source: Bank Information Center USA

Human rights organizations welcomed news last week that the World Bank Inspection Panel will conduct a full investigation into the Bank-funded land-titling project in Cambodia, following a complaint that groups vulnerable to forced eviction have suffered serious harm from the project.

For Immediate Release
April 28, 2010

Human rights organizations welcomed news last week that the World Bank Inspection Panel will conduct a full investigation into the Bank-funded land-titling project in Cambodia, following a complaint that groups vulnerable to forced eviction have suffered serious harm from the project.

The complaint was filed in September by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), with the support of Cambodian housing rights groups, on behalf of more than 4000 families living around Boeung Kak lake who have suffered or are currently threatened with forced eviction. It alleges that the Bank breached its operational policies by failing to adequately supervise the Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP), which has denied urban poor and other vulnerable households due process rights and protection against increasing land-grabbing and forced evictions in Cambodia.

In its response to the complaint issued in December, the World Bank acknowledged the validity of these claims and agreed to approach the Cambodian Government to discuss measures to mitigate the harms of the project. The proposed measures included improving the living conditions and livelihood opportunities for people who have been evicted or who are at risk of forced eviction. However, the Cambodian Government did not agree with the proposed plan and refused to partner with the World Bank to address the claims made in the complaint.

Salih Booker, COHRE Executive Director, welcomed the decision by the World Bank Board of Directors to conduct a full investigation into LMAP, but urged immediately implementation of the Bank’s mitigation efforts, with or without the Government’s involvement, saying “the housing rights of thousands of families are at stake at this very moment.”

David Pred, Executive Director of Bridges Across Borders Cambodia, highlighted similarities to a World Bank Inspection Panel case in Albania last year, in which a Bank-financed project was also implicated in forced evictions. At that time, World Bank President Robert Zoellick promised "the Bank would move promptly to strengthen oversight, improve procedures and help the families who had their buildings demolished." Zoellick added that "the Bank cannot let this happen again."

“They let it happen again,” said Pred, “and this time it is 4000 families losing their homes. The World Bank cannot walk away from these families just because the Government has closed the door. The Bank needs to provide a direct remedy to the people it has acknowledged have been harmed by this project.”

The Cambodian Government abruptly ended its agreement on the project with the World Bank in September 2009 after a disagreement about the applicability of World Bank social safeguards in cases like Boeung Kak. Despite the government’s termination of the agreement, human rights groups have demanded that the Cambodian government continue to be held accountable for its obligations to adhere to the project’s policy on involuntary resettlement.

The groups stated the Bank should carefully consider how it will engage in the future with a government that refuses to respect its contractual obligations to uphold resettlement safeguards. “This is an important test of the World Bank’s safeguard policies,” said Sia Phearum, Director of the Cambodian Housing Rights Task Force. “If the Bank is really committed to these policies, then there should be consequences for the Government’s actions.”

The Inspection Panel report is available here.

contacts
David Pred
Executive Director
Bridges Across Borders Cambodia
david@babcambodia.org
+855 92 285954

Sia Phearum
Secretariat Director
Housing Rights Task Force
cam.hrtf@gmail.com
+855 23 215 590

Bret Thiele
Senior Expert – Litigation and Advocacy
bret@cohre.org
+1 218 733 1370
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Background on Boeung Kak case and forced evictions in Cambodia

Spanning 90 hectares in central north Phnom Penh, Boeung Kak lake is one of the only large open spaces left in Cambodia’s capital city. Prior to the recent evictions, approximately 4000 families lived on and around the lake with many depending on the lake for their livelihood. Families have been living around the lake since the early 1980s when they returned to the city following the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Most of these families have legal rights to their land under Cambodia’s 2001 Land Law.

Despite the legitimate claims to the land of many of the residents around Boeung Kak, when the titling team from the World Bank-financed Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP) adjudicated the area in early 2007, the residents were denied title en masse. In the same month, the Cambodian government entered into a 99-year lease agreement with a private developer, Shukaku Inc., over 133 hectares including the lake and surrounding areas. Shukaku Inc. is headed by Lao Meng Khin, a Senator and major donor to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, who is also director of the controversial logging company Pheapimex.

Families living in the development zone began facing pressure and intimidation to leave the area in August 2008, when the developer commenced filling in the lake as part of its development plans. While few details about the development have been made public, it is estimated that approximately 20,000 people will be displaced. Included in this figure are the more than 1000 families that have already been evicted without their land rights being properly adjudicated and acknowledged. In the absence of any legal protections, these families accepted woefully inadequate compensation under conditions of duress. This was in direct violation of the World Bank’s Policy on Involuntary Resettlement, which the Cambodian government agreed to respect in conjunction with LMAP.

Evictions and forcible confiscation of land continue to rank as one of Cambodia's most pervasive human rights problems. In Phnom Penh alone, approximately 133,000 residents, or 10% of the city’s population of over 1.3 million have been evicted since 1990. While precise nationwide figures are difficult to ascertain, the rate of forced evictions appear to have increased in conjunction with, amongst other things, the granting of concessions over vast tracts of land to private investors. Meanwhile, rural landlessness has skyrocketed from around 13% in 1997 to as high as 25% in 2007.

Coupled with the absence of tenure security, rapidly increasing land values have led to rampant land grabbing by powerful and wealthy elites, to the severe detriment of local communities. The pretext of development is used to justify the forced relocation of low-income households to remote and desolate resettlement sites. However, frequently the projects driving this displacement are beset with corruption and unjust practices, perpetuating a development model that favors powerful interests at the expense of deeper poverty and increased hardship for the most vulnerable. The impending Boeung Kak Lake development is the largest and most visible of these development projects.

Lake Group Continues Push for World Bank Inspection

(Photo: AP)

A group defending residents facing eviction from a lakeside development in Phnom Penh say they will continue demands for an investigation into a World Bank project.

Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Washington, DC Thursday, 15 April 2010

“We’ll continue to call for full inspection, in order to correct the current situation regarding the LMAP, as well as to remedy past violations of human rights that have occurred in the context of this project”

A group defending residents facing eviction from a lakeside development in Phnom Penh say they will continue demands for an investigation into a World Bank project.

The Minnesota-based Center on Housing Rights and Evictions says residents at Boeung Kak lake, which is slated for a multi-million dollar development, lost land they had lived on for years, despite a World Bank land management project.

The World Bank’s inspection arm submitted an internal report to the bank’s board earlier this month, concerning the Land Management and Administration project, but its conclusions are pending.

“We’ll continue to call for full inspection, in order to correct the current situation regarding the LMAP, as well as to remedy past violations of human rights that have occurred in the context of this project,” Bret Thiele, a legal expert for the group, said in an e-mail to VOA Khmer last week.

Some 4,000 lake residents are facing eviction to make way for commercial and residential properties under a government deal with a private developer. But many residents say they have a right to the land, having lived there for 20 years.

More than 900 families have been removed to an area far on the outskirts of the capital. Some families took lump-sum compensation. Still others want their homes to be developed along with the area.

A World Bank representative said its board of directors has until April 14 to look into recommendations on whether to investigate the land management project, which the CHRE says failed to protect the residents.

World Bank Failed Lake Residents: Complaint

Homes being dismantled on Boeung Kak Lake (Photo: Nicolas Axelrod, The Phnom Penh Post)

By Men Kimseng, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
19 March 2010

Click here to listen to the audio program in Khmer

A multi-million-dollar World Bank land project failed to help residents in an impoverished community in Phnom Penh establish legal land titles, allowing their ouster and leaving them in limbo, a US rights group says in an official complaint.

The World Bank’s Land Management and Administrative project failed to protect the people of Beoung Kak lake in northern Phnom Penh, who were pushed out to make way for a lucrative real estate development, the Center on Housing Rights and Evictions says in a Sept. 4, 2009, complaint.

“As Boeung Kak residents were unable to transfer their customary rights into formalized land titles under LMAP, the project not only failed to formalize their tenure but in effect also degraded their pre-existing tenure status,” the Minnesota-based COHRE said in the complaint, a copy of which was obtained by VOA Khmer.

The $28.83 million land management project was initiated in June 2002 and implemented by the Ministry of Land Management but was terminated by the government in September 2009, just a few months before its final date, for having too many conditions.

Local residents said that in 2006, Sras Chak commune, which includes the Boeung Kak community, was declared an adjudication zone, but when they asked to register their land, they were denied and told they lived in a development zone.

“They don’t have a land title, but they have purchasing documents that some of the new residents bought from older ones, and authorities have recognized them,” said Eang Vuthy, a legal education officer of the Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia, which operates in alliance with COHRE.

“The reason why they don’t have a legalized land title was that in 2006 or 2007 the LMAP declared that Sras Chak commune would be an adjudication zone, but the Phnom Penh municipality stopped the registration process,” he said. “They don’t have a land title, only customary rights.”

Vuthy said that according to the Cambodian land law those who live more than five years on uncontested land are the rightful owners.

There are more than 4,000 families of Boeung Kak residents, some of which have been living there for almost 20 years. Most of them are poor people, while some have guesthouse businesses. Many were evicted after the government decided in 2007 to lease the land to Shukaku, Inc., a developer.

According to the Development Credit Agreement for the LMAP, in order to mitigate the potential harm of evictions from state property, an application of the Environment and Social Guidelines, including the Resettlement Policy Framework is required, COHRE said.

However, the framework was not applied in the case of Boeung Kak. Therefore, in addition to the “weakening of the customary land rights of Boeung Kak residents, the protections that the DCA required have not been implemented by the government,” COHRE said.

More than 900 families have so far been evicted from the Boeung Kak area. Some have been relocated to Damnak Troyeung, some 20 kilometers outside of Phnom Penh, while others received a lump sum of $8,500 in compensation.

“We, the Boeung Kak residents, don’t know where else to seek intervention because three countries have announced registration of our land, but now the government says the land is still in dispute and cannot be registered,” said Thai Nary, a local resident who claimed to have settled in Village 22 since 1993. “I am so hopeless hearing that. I cannot even fix my leaking roof. I almost cry every day and cannot stand up anymore. If I raise my roof a bit higher, I am scared that the company will besiege and stop me.”

Thai Nary and other residents have asked for onsite development.

The residents have asked COHRE for assistance, and the case has so far been brought to the attention of the World Bank’s Inspection Panel, according to COHRE documents.

Officials at the World Bank in Washington declined to comment, referring VOA Khmer to see documents posted on its Web site.

An Inspection Panel’s report dated Dec. 2, 2009, posted on the bank’s site, concludes that in order to make an independent assessment for management compliance, “Bank policies and procedures and related issues of harm in the context of the project, the Panel would need to conduct an appropriate review of all relevant facts and applicable policies and procedure.”

The Panel, however, asked the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors to refrain from issuing any recommendation pending a management meeting with the government.

“The Panel, as it has done in similar situations in the past with Board approval, will not take a position at this time on whether the issues of non-compliance and harm raised in the Requester merit an investigation,” the Panel concluded.

After COHRE’s request for an investigation, on Dec. 17, 2009, the World Bank’s Cambodia manager, Annette Dixon, issued a statement saying the bank was ready to support Cambodia to improve living conditions of people who have been resettled or are facing settlement from land facing development.

An initiative for negotiations between the government and the Bank is underway, sources told VOA Khmer.

Invitation: Human Rights Drinks with Special Rapporteur Surya Subedi, Tuesday 26 January 2010

Source: COHRE

Dear friends,

Our monthly Human Rights Drinks for 2010 is on again.

For the first event for the new year, we are pleased and honoured to have *Mr. Surya Subedi, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia* talk with the human rights community about his second mission to Cambodia and the key human rights issues and concerns.

• When: Tuesday 26 January 2010,
• Time: 7:00PM (followed by Q and A -one hour)
• Where: Baitong Cafe and Restaurant, No 7, Street 360, BKK1
• Moderator: Mr Ou Virak, President, CCHR
• Language: English with Khmer.

Apologies for the short notice. Look forward to see you there! Everyone welcome.

best,
Depika

--
Depika Sherchan,
Project Officer, Asia and Pacific Programme
Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE)
PO Box 2061, Phnom Penh 3, Cambodia
No 9A, Street 420
Sangkat Boeung Tra Beak, Chamkarmon
Phnom Penh,
Cambodia

Ph: +855 23 726 930
Fax: +855 23 726 934 Email: depika@cohre.org
Web: www.cohre.org

Cambodian communities facing forced eviction launch Inspection Panel complaint against World Bank

2 October 2009
Press Release

Phnom Penh residents facing the largest forced displacement of Cambodians since the Khmer Rouge era have filed a complaint to the World Bank Inspection Panel stating that they have suffered serious harm from a Bank-funded land-titling project.

For immediate release

October 1, 2009

Phnom Penh, Residents facing the largest forced displacement of Cambodians since the Khmer Rouge era have filed a complaint to the World Bank Inspection Panel stating that they have suffered serious harm from a Bank-funded land-titling project. The complaint, submitted by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) and registered on 24 September, alleges that the Bank breached its operational policies by failing to adequately supervise the Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP), which has denied urban poor and other vulnerable households protection against widespread tenure insecurity and increasing forced evictions in Cambodia.

A major report about the Bank-financed project, “Untitled: Tenure Insecurity and Inequality in the Cambodian Land Sector,” was also released this week by three international human rights organizations, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) and Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia (BABSEA).

“The principal finding of the report is that, despite a seven-year, multi-million dollar effort to reform the land sector, Cambodia’s land administration institutions have failed to improve tenure security for vulnerable groups, who are routinely and arbitrarily denied access to land titling and dispute resolution mechanisms,” stated Salih Booker, Executive Director of COHRE.

Despite having legitimate rights to the land under Cambodia’s Land Law, thousands of families residing around Phnom Penh’s Boeung Kak lake were denied titles when the area was adjudicated by LMAP in January 2007, the same month that a well-connected developer acquired a legally dubious 99-year lease over the area. Residents have since been subjected to intimidation and pressure to leave their homes by the developer and local officials. So far, an estimated 900 families have been evicted from their land to make way for the development, with more than 3000 families due to face the same fate.

The NGO report states that “[t]he fact that these households do not have title is often used against them as a justification for eviction, despite the fact that many have well documented rights under the law.” “Meanwhile,” the report continues, “the wealthy and well-connected have little difficulty in acquiring land title in high value areas in which poor communities reside due to their connections or their ability to pay the high ‘unofficial fees’.”

Both the complaint and the report cite numerous flaws of LMAP, including a failure to issue titles to vulnerable households in accordance with legal procedures, ineffective and corrupt dispute resolution mechanisms, and a failure to conduct essential public awareness campaigns and legal aid programs.

The report identifies the absence of transparent State land management as a key failure of LMAP, which has contributed to the problem of tenure insecurity throughout the country. It states that the lack of transparency and an unimplemented or inadequate legal framework has led to the loss of public spaces in both urban and rural settings, as well as the large-scale depletion of the country’s natural resources, especially forests.

“The mismanagement of State land has negatively impacted the poorest Cambodians most,” said BABSEA Director David Pred. “Rural and indigenous communities have been deprived of the land on which their lives depend in order to make way for Economic Land Concessions, and poor urban households have been denied the opportunity to secure their land tenure despite their legal entitlements, when they are wrongly labelled as squatters on State land.”

Boeung Kak residents who filed the complaint against the World Bank have requested to remain anonymous, citing concerns for their safety amidst increasing intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders and political dissidents in Cambodia.

The Cambodian government abruptly ended its agreement on the project with the World Bank last month after a disagreement about the applicability of World Bank social safeguards in cases like Boeung Kak. Despite the government’s termination of the agreement, human rights groups have demanded that the Cambodian government continue to be held accountable for its contractual obligations to adhere to the project’s policy on involuntary resettlement.

“In light of the serious problems with the design and implementation of LMAP, it is incumbent upon the World Bank to conduct a thorough investigation of this project and its overall assistance strategy in Cambodia,” said Pred. “After seven years of wholly inadequate supervision of LMAP, the Bank has a responsibility to investigate and remedy the harms that have been caused to the Cambodian families who have been unfairly denied recognition of their land rights.”

“The World Bank should reconsider its approach to land titling programmes that it promotes worldwide, especially in countries without strong rule of law and the political will to protect people’s rights against powerful interests,” Booker added. “Through the Inspection Panel’s investigation, the World Bank can and should learn important lessons from LMAP.”
The notice of registration of the complaint is available at:

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTINSPECTIONPANEL/Resources/Notice_of_Registration.pdf

Read the report:
Untitled: Tenure Insecurity and Inequality in the Cambodian Land Sector, Jesuit Relief Services, October 2009 (Acrobat PDF, 1.38 MB)

For more information, please contact:

David Pred
BABSEA Director
davidpred@babsea.org
+855 92 285954

Dan Nicholson
Coordinator,
COHRE Asia and Pacific Programme
dan@cohre.org
+66884030093

Natalie Bugalski
COHRE Legal Officer
natalie@cohre.org
+855 17 523276

Background on Boeung Kak case and forced evictions in Cambodia

Source: Cohre.org

Spanning 90 hectares in central north Phnom Penh, Boeung Kak lake is one of the only large open spaces left in Cambodia’s capital city. Prior to the recent evictions, approximately 4000 families lived on and around the lake with many depending on the lake for their livelihood. Families have been living around the lake since the early 1980s when they returned to the city following the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime. Most of these families have legal rights to their land under Cambodia’s 2001 Land Law.

Despite the legitimate claims to the land of many of the residents around Boeung Kak, when the LMAP titling teams adjudicated the area in early 2007, the residents were denied title en masse. In the same month, the Cambodian government entered into a 99-year lease agreement with a private developer, Shukaku Inc., over 133 hectares including the lake and surrounding areas. Shukaku Inc. is headed by Lao Meng Khin, a Senator and major donor to the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, who is also director of the controversial logging company Pheapimex.

Families living in the development zone began facing pressure and intimidation to leave the area in August 2008, when the developer commenced filling in the lake as part of its development plans. While few details about the development have been made public, it is estimated that approximately 20,000 people will be displaced. Included in this figure are the more than 900 families that have already been evicted without their land rights being properly adjudicated and acknowledged. In the absence of any legal protections, these families accepted woefully inadequate compensation under conditions of duress.

Evictions and forcible confiscation of land continue to rank as one of Cambodia's most pervasive human rights problems. In Phnom Penh alone, approximately 133,000 residents, or 10% of the city’s population of over 1.3 million have been evicted since 1990. While precise nationwide figures are difficult to ascertain, the rate of forced evictions appear to have increased in conjunction with, amongst other things, the granting of concessions over vast tracts of land to private investors. Meanwhile, rural landlessness has skyrocketed from around 13% in 1997 to as high as 25% in 2007.

Coupled with the absence of tenure security, rapidly increasing land values have led to rampant land grabbing by powerful and wealthy elites, to the severe detriment of local communities. The pretext of development is used to justify the forced relocation of low-income households to remote and desolate resettlement sites. However, frequently the projects driving this displacement are beset with corruption and unjust practices, perpetuating a development model that favours powerful interests at the expense of deeper poverty and increased hardship for the most vulnerable. The impending Boeung Kak Lake development is the largest and most visible of these development projects.
•••••••••••
Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia (BABSEA) is an international grassroots organization working to bring people together to overcome poverty, injustice and inequity in the Southeast Asia region. BABSEA has offices in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Chiang Mai, Thailand and works in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) is an international human rights non-governmental organization that works to promote and protect the right to adequate housing. COHRE is based in Geneva, Switzerland, with offices throughout the world, and has consultative status with the United Nations.

Open Letter by FIDH, COHRE, HRW and AI Regarding the Forced Eviction of Residents of Boeung Kak Lake

4 December 2008
Source: Amnesty International

Open Letter by International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Regarding the Forced Eviction of Residents of Boeung Kak Lake in the Phnom Penh Municipality.

To Mr. Kep Chuktema, Governor of the Municipality of Phnom Penh:

We write to you to express our deep concerns about recent developments affecting residents of the Boeung Kak Lake area in central Phnom Penh. Some residents near the lake have been forcibly evicted, while others are facing eviction amid rising water levels, and threats and harassment. Government officials and company workers have threatened residents in and around Boeung Kak Lake and NGOs supporting them, when they have campaigned against the filling of the lake and imminent eviction. Heavily armed police, including military police, frequently harass community leaders and NGO workers and block access to the area. Journalists face intimidation when reporting about the developments, including on 27 November 2008 when police took reporters in for questioning about their coverage of the situation.

As you know, in February 2007 the Municipality of Phnom Penh entered into a 99-year lease agreement for US$79 million for 133 hectares, including Boeung Kok lake and surrounding land, with a private developer, Shukaku Inc. According to the government, the company will turn the area into "pleasant, trade, and service places for domestic and international tourists," including by filling in 90% of the lake. On 26 August 2008 a company began filling the lake, which has worsened flooding and caused the destruction of some houses.

The development will lead to the eviction of almost 4,000 families, despite many of the affected families having strong legal claims to the land under the Land Law. Without prior meaningful consultation, affected communities are currently being made non-negotiable offers of compensation or houses in a relocation site on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. The compensation offered is insufficient for families to obtain comparable alternative housing. Housing at the relocation site is not adequate: infrastructure is poor, basic amenities including clean water is lacking, and access to work opportunities is very limited given the distance from the city. Moreover, offers include no formal security of tenure for those agreeing to move.

Residents have sought to halt the filling of the lake which is gradually destroying homes, and have requested more compensation. However, the Municipality has told residents that they do not have the right to demand anything more than the offered compensation.

We also note with concern the prevalence of forced evictions in Cambodia. Forced evictions are evictions that are carried out without adequate notice, consultation with those affected, legal safeguards or assurances of adequate alternative accommodation. They violate Cambodian law and Cambodia's international human rights obligations.

The development of the lake breaches Cambodian law. According to the 2001 Land Law, the lake itself is inalienable state land (so-called state public property), and as such cannot be leased for longer tha 15 years, during which time the function of the property must not change. In August 2008, a subdecree reclassified Boeung Kak Lake into private state land, in what appeared to be an attempt to validate the lease.

The agreement also appears to breach other domestic law and implementing regulations as the environmental impact assessment has not been made widely available to the public or to the affected communities, and because no open bidding process preceded the agreement.

As noted above, the development of the Boeung Kak lake breaches Cambodia's international human rights obligations. According to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Cambodia, as a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), is obliged to ensure, before any planned evictions, that all alternatives are explored in consultation with those affected by the eviction. Evictions may only occur in accordance with the law and in conformity with international standards, including genuine consultation with those affected; adequate notice and information on the proposed eviction, and provisions of legal remedies for those affected. Evictions may only occur if they do not render individuals homeless or vulnerable to the violation of other human rights.

We therefore call on the Municipality of Phnom Penh to ensure that the rights of the residents of Boeung Kak lake are respected and protected, and that victims of forced evictions are provided with effective remedies, including restitution of housing, land or property. We also request that arbitrary arrests, intimidation and restrictions of the right to peaceful protest be stopped immediately.

Recent research by Amnesty International and local partners indicates that 150,000 people in Cambodia are living under threat of forced eviction, including up to 70,000 in Phnom Penh alone. The government should end forced evictions and introduce a moratorium on mass evictions until the legal framework and relevant policies are in place to ensure that evictions are conducted only in accordance with Cambodia's international human rights obligations.

The evictions taking place to pave the way for the development of Boeung Kak are emblematic of a broader problem of violations of the right to adequate housing in Cambodia. The Cambodian government has an obligation under international law to protect the population against forced evictions. Everyone -- whether owners, renters or unregistered settlers -- should possess a degree of security of tenure which guarantees legal protection against forced eviction, harassment and other threats.

We sincerely hope that you will take into consideration our concerns. In this regard we would like to request a meeting with you and relevant officials to discuss Boeung Kak lake and related matters.

Yours sincerely,

Souhayr Belhassen, President, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
Salih Booker, Executive Director, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE)
Brad Adams, Asia Director, Human Rights Watch
Sam Zarifi, Director, Asia-Pacific Programme, Amnesty International.