A shining orange spot among the drab khaki of repression: Ven. Loun Sovath

Survey: More anti-union repression in Asia

8/06/2011
Achara Ashayagachat
Bangkok Post

Anti-union repression often results in the dismissal of workers who were active in the defence of their rights. In Cambodia, 817 workers from the clothing sector were fired or suspended following a national strike in September.

A global survey revealed the increasing trend of anti-union repression in Asia-Pacific, according to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

The 2011 annual survey of violations of trade union rights in the world has shown anti-union repression increases in Asia-Pacific. Thailand was also mentioned in the survey that "Employers display an openly anti-union attitude while the government goes as far as providing training on trade union surveillance," according to the survey released this morning worldwide.

On Thailand scenario, the survey concluded that "the legal framework is not conducive to trade union activities. Union members suffered discrimination due to their union activities, and there were overt indications that the government would support employers over workers in labour disputes. Employers remained fiercely anti-union. Government attacks on migrant workers continued."

Are Cambodians Really Free, and when Is Government Censorship Okay?

Friday, February 18, 2011
Opinion by Keo Cham

I Disagree

To those who believe that freedom must have a limit, that expressions must not harm, and that words must not destroy; I completely supports your views, and humbly submit my freedom for the sake of these noble principles.

But to those who believe that freedom should be curved and that governments should have the responsibility to act as moral police to ensure that expressions do not "libel", "slander", "falsify" or "destabilize", I must respectfully, disagree.

What is the difference? One, we should know and distinguish in our minds that the limitations of freedom and the enforcements of it's limits are not the same. The jurisdiction of enforcement on the limitations of our freedoms does not fall to the governments, its responsibilities lies in the desire and aspirations of our society and the people.

Laws are created to protect society and the people within it; they are not tools to immortalized an institution, or a small clique of people.

US: Act Now on Burma Commission of Inquiry [-Please don't forget inquiries into Hun Xen's Cambodia!]

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gives a foreign policy speech regarding US-Asia Pacific relations before her trip to the Asian Pacific region, in Honolulu, Hawaii on October 28, 2010. (Photo: Reuters)

EU, Other States Should Back Clinton’s Call Now

October 29, 2010

Source: Human Rights Watch

"The US is finally starting to show leadership in turning talk of an international commission of inquiry for war crimes into Burma a reality. Other countries favoring a commission should join the United States in moving from making public statements of support to taking concrete steps to make it happen." - Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch

(New York) ­- US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should use her trips to Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the G20 summit, and the European Union-US summit to intensively build active support for an international commission of inquiry on Burma, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch welcomed Clinton's October 28, 2010 commitment to pursue such a commission, and urged countries supporting a commission to collaborate on a strategic diplomatic plan to make this proposal happen.

On October 28, Clinton said at a news conference in Hawaii, "I would like to underscore the American commitment to seek accountability for the human rights violations that have occurred in Burma by working to establish an international commission of inquiry through close consultations with our friends, allies, and other partners at the United Nations."

"The US is finally starting to show leadership in turning talk of an international commission of inquiry for war crimes into Burma a reality," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "Other countries favoring a commission should join the United States in moving from making public statements of support to taking concrete steps to make it happen."

More than 12 governments have publicly supported a commission of inquiry into violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Burma, including EU member states such as the United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ireland, Estonia, Hungary, and Lithuania, as well as the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The EU is the lead sponsor of the annual Burma resolution at the United Nations General Assembly, which is currently in session in New York.

In a letter to European Union High Representative Catherine Ashton released on October 18, Human Rights Watch called for Ashton and the EU to back the report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar (Burma), Tomás Ojea Quintana, and show leadership in support of a commission of inquiry.

Some government leaders have hesitated to act on a commission of inquiry until after the results of the November 7 elections in Burma and formation of a new, nominally civilian government, Human Rights Watch said. China has also spoken out against a commission of inquiry, calling it "destructive" and "dangerous." In his October 2010 report to the UN General Assembly, Quintana elaborated on his proposal to the UN to form an international commission of inquiry by reminding states that justice was at the core of the UN system."Decades of human suffering [in Burma] do not allow further delay," Quintana said.

"A commission of inquiry for Burma won't happen without the active involvement of like-minded countries at the highest levels of government," said Roth. "A determined diplomatic effort - ideally at the UN General Assembly - is the best antidote to those who think Burma's human rights problems will be solved by the November 7 sham elections."

In August, Human Right Watch released a detailed Q&A on the commission of inquiry.

Background:

The United Nations has established many commissions of inquiries in the past to investigate serious violations of international law, but never with respect to Burma. The UN has issued highly critical human rights reports on Burma annually for nearly two decades. These reports have demonstrated that serious crimes by government security forces are widespread and systematic, and continue with utter impunity.

The Burmese government and non-state armed groups involved in Burma's long-running internal armed conflicts are bound by international humanitarian law (the laws of war). The armed forces of Burma have been responsible for numerous serious human rights and laws-of-war violations, including deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, summary executions of civilians and captured combatants, sexual violence against women and girls, torture, use of child soldiers, attacks on populations' livelihood and food supplies, forced displacement of populations, and use of anti-personnel landmines. Non-state armed groups in Burma also have been implicated in serious abuses, including forced labor, recruitment of child soldiers, and anti-personnel landmine use.

Democracy, Freedoms Continue Backslide: Rights Activist

Ou Virak, who is the head of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, told “Hello VOA” that Cambodia was looking more and more like China or Vietnam. (Photo: by Men Kimseng)

Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington, DCFriday, 29 October 2010

This is a “UN internal issue, it's not possible for a country to suggest the firing of someone, such as the case in Cambodia.”

Cambodia is increasingly headed toward a unilateral party system of government and backslides in democracy, a leading rights researcher said Thursday.

Ou Virak, who is the head of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, told “Hello VOA” that Cambodia was looking more and more like China or Vietnam, with the space for democratic freedoms shrinking.

Rights of expression, assembly, land, fair trial and others have eroded in recent years, he said, while human trafficking and sexual exploitation remain problematic.

Ou Virak's comments followed pressure from Cambodia to the UN to close its local rights office in Phnom Penh. Prime Minister Hun Sen told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during talks in Phnom Penh this week he wanted the head of the UN's rights office here sacked.

However, this is a “UN internal issue,” Ou Virak said. “It's not possible for a country to suggest the firing of someone, such as the case in Cambodia.”

To suggest as much was a “lack of diplomacy on the international stage, and made Cambodia shameful at the international level,” he said.

The UN rights office exists here per an agreement between Cambodia and the UN, stemming from the period of Untac peacekeeping in the 1990s. At the same time, Ou Virak said, Cambodia agreed to improve its human rights, as part of the peace agreements.

Ou Virak is on a two-week trip to the US, where he met with senior State Department officials and representatives of Congress to discuss Cambodia's human rights' situation.

Hun Xen's authorization to sue union leaders and break up workers strike

Click here to read the relevant story

Click on the letter in Khmer to zoom in

Land dispute: Eating not allowed for the protesters?

Friday 28 May 201
By P.M. and A.L.G.
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French

Landless farmers demand for an arbitration from Hun Xen in a land dispute case. The cops tried to prevent bread delivery to the demonstrators.



The cops were not successful, but later that day, the demonstrators were disbanded by the police anyway.

(Photo: Free Press Magazine Online)

Chea Mony: Conditions of Workers Not Improving

Conditions of Workers Not Improving, Brother of Slain Leader Says

By Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
Washington
03 December 2007

Chea Mony, whose brother, labor leader Chea Vichea, was murdered in 2004, said Monday that many of the conditions that led to his brother’s union movement still exist, or are worse.

The government exports are worth $2.6 billion per year, Chea Mony said, but the workers see little of it.

Chea Mony, who has assumed his brother's mantle as the head of the Free Trade Union of the Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, said demonstrations were not allowed as readily as they were in the past, and when strikes do occur, management budges little.

Police have put down several demonstrations in recent weeks, including one last week that put four people in jail and injured several more. Such violence was a hallmark of the Kandal province police, where this strike occurred and others often do, Chea Mony said.

"It's not police business,” he said. “It’s supposed to be the owner and worker dealing with the issue, but every time it turns out to be violent, and police enter to solve the problem.”