Showing posts with label Human rights in Cambodia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Human rights in Cambodia. Show all posts

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Human Rights

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Ven. Loun Sovath nominated to the 2012 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders

(Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)



PRESS RELEASE
Geneva, 24 April 2012

Micheline Calmy-Rey Announces Nominees for 2012 Martin Ennals Award 
for Human Rights Defenders

GENEVA - Former Swiss President and newly-appointed Chair of the Martin Ennals Foundation, Micheline Calmy-Rey, today announced the nominees for the 2012 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA) at a press conference at the Palais Eynard, Geneva, Switzerland. The MEA is the main award of the international human rights movement. 

The announcement and press conference will be streamed 11:00 -11:30hrs Geneva time on http://www.martinennalsaward.org/

The three nominees for the 2012 award are:

Venerable Luon Sovath, Cambodia. In March 2009, Luon Sovath, a Buddhist monk from Siem Reap, Cambodia witnessed his family and fellow villagers being forcibly evicted from their homes. Forced evictions remove families from their homes, often with no compensation. Despite threats of violence, arrest and disrobing, the venerable Sovath, a non-violent Buddhist monk, uses videos, poems and songs to defend the right to housing, but his advocacy touches powerful economic interests. The threats against the venerable Sovath are very real.

Nasrin Sotoudeh, a woman lawyer from Iran, is currently serving an 11-year sentence on charges of ‘spreading propaganda against the State’, ‘collusion and gathering with the aim of acting against national security’ and ‘membership in an illegal organization’. She is the former lawyer and member of the organization of the now-exiled Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, who declares Sotoudeh is ‘one of the last remaining courageous human rights lawyers who has accepted all risks for defending the victims of human rights violations in Iran’.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights (BCHR) is internationally recognized for its work on documenting human rights abuses in Bahrain. Despite harassment by the government, who warn of legal action against the Center’s members if they continue their activities, the BCHR provides information to international NGOs and the diplomatic community in Bahrain and advocates locally and internationally in support of demands for democratic change in the Gulf Kingdom.

The nominees were carefully selected by ten human rights organizations which make up the Martin Ennals Award Jury: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, the International Federation for Human Rights, the World Organisation Against Torture, Frontline, the International Commission of Jurists, German Diakonie, the International Service for Human Rights and HURIDOCS.

On 2 October 2012, the Laureate will be announced during the annual ceremony at Victoria Hall, organized in cooperation with the Ville de Genève.

For more information, photos and videos regarding this year's nominees please visit  http://www.martinennalsaward.org  or contact  info@martinennalsaward.org
+41 22 809 49 25.
--------
COMMUNIQUÉ DE PRESSE

Genève, le 24 avril 2012

Micheline Calmy-Rey annonce les nominés au Prix Martin Ennals 
pour les Défenseurs des Droits de l’Homme 2012

GENÈVE - Micheline Calmy-Rey, ancienne présidente de la Confédération suisse et nouvellement nommée à la présidence de la Fondation Martin Ennals, a annoncé, aujourd’hui, les nominés au Prix Martin Ennals pour les Défenseurs des Droits de l’Homme (MEA) 2012, lors d’une conférence de presse qui s’est déroulée au Palais Eynard de Genève (Suisse). Le MEA est le principal prix du mouvement mondial des droits de l’homme. 

L’annonce et la conférence de presse seront diffusées entre 11h00 et 11h30 (heure de Genève) sur le site : http://www.martinennalsaward.org/

Les trois nominés pour le prix 2012 sont :

Le vénérable Loun Sovath (Cambodge). En mars 2009, Loun Sovath, un moine bouddhiste de Siem Reap, au Cambodge, a été témoin des expropriations subies par sa famille et les habitants de son village. Les familles ont été expulsées de leurs habitations, par la force, le plus souvent sans aucun dédommagement. Malgré les menaces de représailles physiques, d’arrestation et d’anathème, dont il fait l’objet, le vénérable Sovath, ce moine bouddhiste qui prône la non violence, utilise des vidéos, des poèmes et des chansons pour défendre le droit au logement, mais son plaidoyer se heurte à de puissants intérêts économiques. Les menaces à son encontre sont donc bien réelles.

Nasrin Sotoudeh, avocate iranienne, qui purge actuellement une peine de 11 ans de prison pour « propagande contre l’État », « collusion et rassemblement visant à agir contre la sécurité nationale » et « appartenance à une organisation illégale ». Elle est membre et ancienne avocate de l’organisation fondée par Shirin Ebadi, prix Nobel de la Paix iranienne, aujourd’hui exilée, qui affirme que Sotoudeh est : « l’une des dernières avocates courageuses à se consacrer à la défense des droits de l’homme et à prendre tous les risques pour défendre les victimes de violations des droits humains en Iran ».    

Le Centre bahreïni pour les droits de l’homme (BCHR) est mondialement reconnu pour son travail de diffusion d’informations relatives aux violations des droits humains au Bahreïn. Malgré le harcèlement du gouvernement, qui menace les membres du Centre de poursuites judiciaires s'ils continuent leurs activités, le BCHR fournit des informations aux ONG internationales et à la communauté diplomatique au Bahreïn, tout en soutenant, localement et à l’échelle mondiale, les demandes de changement démocratique dans le royaume du Golfe.

Les nominés ont été soigneusement sélectionnés par les dix organisations de défense des droits de l’homme qui composent le Jury du Prix Martin Ennals : Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, la Fédération internationale des droits de l’homme, l’Organisation mondiale contre la torture, Frontline, la Commission internationale des juristes, Diakonie Allemagne, le Service international pour les droits de l’homme et HURIDOCS.          

Le nom du lauréat sera annoncé, le 2 octobre 2012, lors de la cérémonie annuelle, organisée en collaboration avec la Ville de Genève, qui se tiendra au Victoria Hall.

Pour plus d’informations, de photos et de vidéos concernant les nominés de cette année, rendez-vous sur le site  http://www.martinennalsaward.org  ou contactez-nous par e-mail à info@martinennalsaward.org ou par téléphone au +41 22 809 49 25.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

CCHR Press Release : CCHR welcomes the Internatio​nal Day Against Homophobia and Transphobi​a and calls on all people to respect the human rights of LGBT people

CCHR Press Release: Stand Up for the Human Rights of LGBT People (in Khmer)
http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/55597570?access_key=key-1vopczjy50yhc8jh4t0l

CCHR Press Release: Stand Up for the Human Rights of LGBT People (in English)
http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/55597645?access_key=key-20ugwvlxeo5y88n1m1sq


Dear All,

CCHR PRESS RELEASE, Phnom Penh, 17 May 2011

Stand up for the human rights of LGBT people

CCHR welcomes the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia and calls on all people to respect the human rights of LGBT people

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (“CCHR”) welcomes the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (the “IDAHO”), a day on which events are organized all around the world to celebrate diversity and to call for respect for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (“LGBT”) people everywhere. The key message of the IDAHO is that homophobia and transphobia – rather than homosexuality and diversity – bring shame to society and should be fought.

As CCHR documented in its 2010 report, Coming out in the Kingdom: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People in Cambodia, LGBT people throughout Cambodia currently suffer from discrimination, abuse and even violence. They are ostracized by their families, denied job opportunities, discriminated against in the workplace, victimized by the police, and prevented from meeting freely and expressing themselves in public and with each other.

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

To celebrate internatio​nal press freedom day, CCHR announces launch of new official website


CCHR PRESS RELEASE - Phnom Penh, 3 May 2011

To celebrate international press freedom day, CCHR announces launch of new official website

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (“CCHR”) is delighted to announce the official launch of our new website today, www.cchrcambodia.org. The launch coincides with World Press Freedom Day, which this year focuses on the theme of “21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers”. The new CCHR website is a prime example of how new media to promote and protect human rights and democracy around the world.

The new website contains information about the situation of human rights in Cambodia, and about CCHR and our activities in the furtherance of human rights and democracy. The site also provides links to all CCHR resources – press releases and reports – and news stories about our work. For example, you can access our briefing note released today to coincide with International World Press Freedom Day which is titled “21st Century: New Frontiers, Old Barriers” from the website. The website also includes live feeds from our Facebook and Twitter accounts, and podcasts and Youtube clips of CCHR’s public forums and hearings. In the two weeks since the website has been live, CCHR has received hits from over 40 countries around the world including China, France, Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Palestine, the United Kingdom and the United States, to name but a few. These hits demonstrate the reach of new media in obtaining a global audience and opening up new frontiers that can be fundamental in raising awareness of the human rights situation in Cambodia.

Since its establishment, CCHR has embraced new media and is using Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Youtube together with other social media to promote our activities and to draw attention to local, and global, human rights issues. Currently CCHR has more than 3000 individuals following its work on Facebook and has made 844 tweets. In addition, Sithi.org, the Cambodian Human Rights Portal facilitated by CCHR, has had over 100,000 hits since going live in 2009. To continue our tradition of embracing new media, CCHR will shortly be launching an online database of the data collected by our Trial Monitoring Project team.

Examining events around the world, it is evident that new media has fostered dynamic change and opened the doors to new channels of dialogue particularly where human rights and democracy are concerned. In response to the advent of new media in Cambodia, Chak Sopheap, CCHR executive assistant and renowned “Clogger” (Cambodian blogger) notes, “The internet is an invaluable tool for linking individuals and organizations and for sharing information and ideas in the promotion of a better society. New media represents the new digital democracy in Cambodia and brings with it the possibility for positive development for the future of all Cambodians.” We hope that you will find the CCHR website and CCHR’s other new media initiatives useful and we encourage the Royal Government of Cambodia, Cambodia’s internet users and others to continue to open up new frontiers to allow for new areas of debate and discussion.

For more information, please contact Ou Virak via telephone at +855 (0) 12 40 40 51 or e-mail at ouvirak@cchrcambodia.org

Please find this release attached in Khmer and English.

Thank you and kind regards

--
The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) is a non-political, independent, non-governmental organization that works to promote and protect democracy and respect for human rights throughout Cambodia. For more information, please visit www.cchrcambodia.org.

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Photo Diary of RFK Center's Speak Truth To Power launching events (Part 2)

 Peder Pedersen (The Charitable Foundation), Nicole Sayres (deputy country representative of The Asia Foundation), Scott Neeson, Kerry Kennedy, Amy of The Asia Foundation HQ, Theary Seng, Daravuth Seng, DED Christoph Sperfeldt at a gathering after the first day launching events at my apartment (Phnom Penh, 23 Feb. 2011).
 Kerry Kennedy and Theary Seng with the inspiration and brain behind Cambodian Living Arts: Arn Chorn Pond, Charley Todd, John Burt at the gathering after the first day seminar (Phnom Penh, 23 Feb. 2011).

  Charley Todd, famed cinematographer Rithy Panh, John Burt, John Heffernan, Daravuth Seng, Rob Carmichael, Nicole Sayres (Phnom Penh, 23 Feb. 2011).

Friday, February 25, 2011

Joint human rights project announced

Experts explain about the role of human rights defenders during Wednesday's program (Photo: Marisa)
Thursday, 24 February 2011
Thomas Miller
The Phnom Penh Post

The United States-based Robert F Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights and the Cambodian civic education organisation CIVICUS launched an education programme in Phnom Penh yesterday designed to inspire students to become rights defenders.

Kerry Kennedy, a daughter of Robert F Kennedy and president of the RFK Center, recounted her own awakening to the cause of human rights in remarks at Pannasastra University before several hundred students.

She said a number of traumatic events during her youth had a deep impact on her.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

FACING GENOCIDE screening at Oslo International Film Festival "Human Rights, Human Wrongs"

Theary Seng to attend and speak at the "Human Rights, Human Wrongs" International Film Festival in Norway this February 3.  See Full Program here.





Tuesday, November 30, 2010

CCHR Report - Business and Human Rights in Cambodia - Constructing the Three Pillars




Dear all

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) today, 30 November 2010, releases a report titled "Business and Human Rights in Cambodia: Constructing the Three Pillars". The report, which is an output of CCHR's innovative Business and Human Rights Project, analyzes business and human rights in Cambodia through United Nations Special Representative John Ruggie's "Three Pillars" framework.

Please find attached a concise summary of the report in English and Khmer and the full report in English. 

Should you have any questions about the report or CCHR's Business and Human Rights Project please do not hesitate to contact us. 

All outputs by CCHR are available on our website www.cchrcambodia.org and the CCHR hosted Cambodian Human Rights Portal www.sithi.org

Thank you and kind regards



Saturday, September 18, 2010

CWS: 'Clean Water Scarce in Rural Cambodia'

Church World Service
475 Riverside Drive
New York, NY 10115
(212) 870-2676

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Water as human right hasn’t reached rural Cambodia, CWS tells Geneva consultation

GENEVA, Switzerland –Sept. 17, 2010 -- Cambodia has made strides over the past two decades in providing clean water and sanitation to its urban areas. But those gains have yet to reach the majority of rural Cambodians, according to Cambodian humanitarian agency water program specialist Mao Sophal.

Sophal, senior staff member for Church World Service Cambodia, spoke on the issue of affordability of clean water and sanitation for Cambodia’s poorest, during a consultation earlier this week in Geneva between international civil society representatives and Catarina de Albuquerque, United Nations independent expert on issues of access to safe drinking water and sanitation as a human right.

Sophal and Agneta Dau Valler, Country Representative for CWS Vietnam and Cambodia, attended the consultation after last week’s World Water Week summit in Sweden, where this year’s Stockholm Industry Water Award was given to the Phnom Penh Water Supply authority for its achievement in providing water to nearly 90% of the city’s population.

“We applaud Cambodia’s advances in making clean water accessible to so many more people in Phnom Penh,” said Dau Valler. “However, the situation is still completely different in the countryside.”

In rural Cambodia -- where 80 percent of the country’s population resides -- UNICEF estimates that only 16 percent of people have access to adequate sanitation and 65 percent to safe water.

The overall lack of clean water and sanitation is costing Cambodia around half a billion dollars every year in poor health and loss of tourism.

But for clean water and sanitation to become a reality for all in Cambodia and the rest of the world’s poorest countries, water and sanitation infrastructure and management also have to be accessible and affordable to all, says CWS’s Sophal.

“There also has to be equal focus on civil society’s advocacy at government and world body levels and cooperative engagement with local and regional authorities,” she said.

Sophal was one of 19 civil society panelists from developing countries and from the U.S. selected from some 50 applicants to present at the Geneva consultation, based on their responses to de Albuquerque’s questionnaire on good practices in water, sanitation and human rights programs.

In her presentation, Sophal said that CWS has focused its sustainable development work in rural Cambodia in great part to align with the country’s stated rural water and sanitation strategy—that, by 2025, every person in rural communities will have “sustained access to safe water supply and sanitation services” and will be living in “a hygienic environment.”

Specifically, CWS aims to help the “poorest of the poor” in rural Cambodia.

To realize that goal, CWS had to develop a valid, consistent and inclusive method of “ranking wealth” among residents, so communities can identify who will receive clean water and sanitation facilities and training in the villages CWS serves in Svay Rieng, Kompong Thom and remote Preah Vihear Provinces.

Mao said the agency’s team follows the humanitarian “do no harm” approach, with a participatory appraisal process in each village that engages district and provincial authorities, village chiefs, commune development leaders and water user groups to establish their own criteria to identify residents as “poorest of the poor,” “poor” or “better-off poor.”

In one village, “better-off poor” families may be identified as having a wooden house with a zinc roof, a certain number of draft and livestock animals, a small amount of land, agricultural income sources, and just enough food to make it through the year, and “poorest of the poor” families as having no draft or livestock animals beyond a few poultry, no land, no income source beyond their own labor, living in a tiny cabin, and insufficient food seven to ten months of the year.

Families selected for assistance receive priority facilities such as upgraded wells, latrines, or bio-sand water filters for safe drinking water.

To promote ownership, CWS said the Cambodian beneficiaries contribute labor and resources as possible and appropriate to their situations. The program also provides water and sanitation resources for health centers, commune offices and primary schools.

Sophal said the CWS approach requires a lot of NGO staff time and energy, but the benefits have been significant. Communities served now experience less water-borne disease, rarely have diarrhea, and households, schools and community centers have improved sanitation and hygiene. With community guidance, households are assisted in growing and maintaining productive home gardens for better food supply and income-generation.

She said the process promotes the human right to water and sanitation among community members and authorities, promotes community solidarity, accountability and honesty, and empowers women in decision-making.

On July 28, the UN General Assembly approved an historic non-binding resolution recognizing "the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right.” On Monday, de Albuquerque told the Geneva civil society gathering that her mandate from the UN is to clarify the content of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation and to make recommendations that could help reach Millennium Development Goals, particularly the goal relating to safe water and sanitation.

The UN water expert has held related consultations with governments, private sector leaders and other stakeholders.

Worldwide, an estimated 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water, more than 2.6 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation, and some 1.5 million children under the age of five die each year from water- and sanitation-related diseases.

Media Contacts
Lesley Crosson, (212) 870-2676, media@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin - 24/7 - (781) 925-1526, jdragin@gis.net

Friday, August 27, 2010



On August 19, 2010, SRP MP Long Ry attended the public Forum organized by the Cambodia Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) on Human Rights Development

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Cambodia: The Official Launch of the First Online Human Rights Portal


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.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Rights activists must support communities

MONDAY, 19 JULY 2010
OU VIRAK
Letter to The Phnom Penh Post


Dear Editor,

In the article “UN backs economic diversity in rural areas” (July 1, 2010), The Phnom Penh Post reported on the recent United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) report that advocates for the decentralisation of development. The report notes how a “‘localised’ policy approach could be [a] method to stimulate countryside economic growth, therefore raising populations out of poverty”. The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) believes that this approach to development should be applied to human rights.

The human rights field in Cambodia has at times been marked by NGOs taking a top-down approach to human rights advocacy, with communities and smaller community-based organisations led rather than empowered. Article 35 of the Constitution of Cambodia provides for “the right to participate actively in the political, economic and cultural life of the nation.” Civil society is not a small collection of national NGOs based in Phnom Penh; rather, it is all those people who seek to exercise this constitutional right, individually or as part of an organisation or informal group, making up society but distinct from the state.

As the UNCDF notes that the “current mainstream policy approach to rural development … [is] not sufficient to promote local economic development”, the CCHR posits that centre-led initiatives to promoting human rights can often suffocate civic-driven change. In the past, ‘one size fits all’ initiatives have been developed and applied to communities throughout Cambodia, with local conditions and needs often ignored. This approach has often failed to improve respect for human rights.

Similar to the development approach advocated by UNDCF, CCHR supports the localisation of human rights advocacy to give rise to nuanced local approaches that reflect the differing needs and priorities of communities throughout Cambodia. Communities and local organisations will not always have the skills and resources to undertake this localised advocacy. There is therefore an important role for national NGOs to play in empowering and assisting these communities where requested. For example, CCHR trains communities on human rights in the context of localised conflict; we train community- and sector-based organisations on monitoring and documenting human-rights violations in their localities or according to their area of focus; and we secure resources for human-rights defenders under threat, to empower them to help their own communities. Meanwhile, aside from implementing initiatives to empower, there will still be an important role for larger national [effort] to undertake research and develop policy as a basis for evidence-based advocacy for policy, structural and legislative changes. CCHR sees these approaches as key to the future of human rights advocacy in Cambodia.

Ou Virak, president

Rupert Abbott
Director of development, CCHR
Phnom Penh

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Invitation to The Official Launch of The Cambodian Human Rights Portal


Dear All,

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) cordially invites you to attend the official launch of the Cambodian Human Rights Portal, Sithi.org (www.sithi.org). Sithi.org is a centralised hub of information on human rights in Cambodia. Its purpose is to:
  1. encourage collaboration with civil society organisations and others interested in maintaining and promoting human rights in Cambodia; and
  2. provide up-to-date information to increase awareness and understanding of the human rights situation in Cambodia.
To mark the occasion of Sithi.org’s official launch, the CCHR will hold a reception at CCHR offices in Phnom Penh on Thursday 22 July, where we will present the portal and its various functions. We hope that this event will encourage all stakeholders in Cambodia to use Sithi.org and contribute information to the Portal so that together we can strengthen capacity and improve human rights in Cambodia.

Programme:
  • 4.00pm – 4:15pm Arrival of guests
  • 4:15pm – 4:30pm Welcome remarked by Mr. Ou Virak, President of CCHR.
  • 4:30pm – 5:00pm Interactive presentation of Sithi
  • 5:00pm – 5:30pm Q&A
  • 5:30pm – 7.00pm Refreshments
Location:
Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR)
No. 798, Street 99, Sangkat Boeung Trabek, Phnom Penh

We look forward to sharing the launch of Sithi.org with all of you. For further information on this event, and RSVP, please contact:
  • Ms. Chor Chanthyda, Project Coordinator, CCHR, Tel: 012 51 55 06 / Email: thyda@cchrcambodia.org; or
  • Miss. Sana Ghouse, Consultant, CCHR, Tel: 089 61 43 34 / Email: sana.ghouse@cchrcambodia.org
Best Regards,

Ms. CHOR Chanthyda
Project Coordinator, DIP.
Cambodian Center for Human Rights
Tel: +855 12 51 55 06
Fax: +855 23 72 69 02
Nº798, Street 99, Beoung Trabek,
Khan Chamkar Mon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia