Hun Sen to UN: Spend Rights Money Elsewhere

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
28 January 2008

Prime Minister Hun Sen continued a public campaign against the UN’s human rights office Monday, saying the international body should stop spending money in Cambodia.

“The UN should take all this budget to victims in areas such as Kenya, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, or other countries facing crises, rather than wasting money in Cambodia,” Hun Sen said.

The latest row comes on the heels of a December visit by Yash Ghai, an envoy for the UN secretary-general, who was highly critical of the government’s rights efforts.

Hun Sen said Monday UN member states should not have to finance trips by Ghai.

“He rides in airplanes and stays at hotels; where does the money come from?” Hun Sen said. “This money is more than a salary. This money is still the UN’s money, and we are also a member of the UN that must also pay membership dues to the UN. We have a duty to appeal for saving the budget, to be spent in other areas, rather than having Yash Ghai traveling to Cambodia.”

Ghai rankled officials in December when he said weak rule of law and ongoing theft of land from the disenfranchised could cause people to rise up against the government.

Human Rights Party President Kem Sokha said Monday that Hun Sen should solve rights abuses and land grabs and solve murders for which no culprit is ever found.

“If he does not want the UN human rights envoy to come to Cambodia, and he regrets the fact that money is wasted, he should solve human rights violations in Cambodia,” Kem Sokha said.

Eng Chhay Eang, secretary-general of the Sam Rainsy Party, said Monday Hun Sen should worry more about the increasing price of goods and fuel and rising unemployment.

“The problem over the UN should not be an issue to bring a headache, whether it has enough money in protecting human rights in Cambodia,” he said.

Cambodia still needs funding for “strengthening human rights mechanisms,” said Thun Saray, director of the rights group Adhoc.

UN must adopt the CPP Human Rights standard in Cambodia?

Cambodia Warns UN to Change Rights Policy

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
25 January 2008

Top officials Friday warned the UN Human Rights Commission’s Cambodia office to be more cooperative with the ruling government, following several visits of a UN envoy highly critical of the government’s rights commitment.

“We have had a Memorandum of Understanding with this office, and we’ll see if we need to renew the MOU when it expires,” Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said. “But our request is that the representative office of the Human Rights Commission implement what is in the MOU, and not more than that, just as what it is.”

UN special envoy Yash Ghai said following a visit in December that Cambodia’s rights abuses, weak judiciary and increasing land thefts could cause the populace to “rise up” against the government.

His visit was not officially recognized, and he met instead with rural villagers, human rights groups and political parties. His remarks angered the government, including Prime Minsiter Hun Sen, who has in the past sought Ghai’s removal.

The UN rights office has said it will adjust work procedures to “sit with the government and get the problems solved,” government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said. “Now we just wait and see if they can make it.”

“But on the whole we can shut down [the rights office] any time regardless of whether they are right or wrong,” he said.

During 2007 in Cambodia, criminal lawsuits and arrests continued to be used as tools for political repression, particularly in land & labour disputes

Editorial: Year of living dangerously

Thu, December 20 2007
The Asian Pacific Post (Vancouver, BC, Canada)

The year 2007 will be remembered as a year when tens of thousands of Asians risked their freedom to march for human rights in Asia.

It will also be a year that will go down in history as one where Asian leaders resorted to draconian laws and violent suppression to quell the cries for basic rights, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.

From Burma to Pakistan, The Philippines to South Korea, and throughout the rest of Asia, human rights eroded steadily as a result of repressive policies.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in its latest annual report said conflict and gross rights violations persisted as a way of life, despite the superficial workings of elected governments in many Asian nations.

The Philippines saw a continued failure to prosecute and punish the perpetrators of extrajudicial killings, which has caused the situation of human rights in the impoverished southeast Asian nation to go from bad to worse.

Human rights defenders, labour unionists, peasant leaders and others continue to face grave threats to their lives. The police have been a major impediment to human rights, both through their acts and omissions.

Investigations are poorly done or are not impartial. Witness protection is for all intents and purposes non-existent.

Myanmar’s monkhood, which has a long history of political activism, took the lead in organizing peaceful protests against drastic fuel hikes announced in mid-August, as well as the country’s deteriorating economic conditions. The demonstrations culminated in ten-of-thousands taking to the streets of Yangon in increasingly aggressive protests against the military, which has ruled the country for the past 45 years. The junta finally cracked down Sep 26-27 with batons and bullets, killing at least 15 people and imprisoning more than 3,000. The actual death toll and the number of people still in prison in Myanmar remains a mystery.

The mass protests in Myanmar (formerly Burma) during August and September have shown that there is a wide consensus for a transfer of power from the military regime to a civilian government.

During 2007 in Cambodia, criminal lawsuits and arrests continued to be used as tools for political repression, particularly in land and labour disputes. There were also many restrictions on freedoms of the press, of expression and of assembly. Land grabbing was rife and remains one of the most serious economic and human rights issues in the country today. Cambodia continues to exhibit hostility towards UN human rights mechanisms.

The lack of political will in Indonesia has stalled reforms within the country’s police.

Torture has not been criminalized, while the military continues to be the dominant institution in many regions where historic injustices have not been righted. Impunity remains the key feature of law and order, for torture and for other gross abuses of human rights.

In South Korea some major human rights concerns persist over laws relating to, and treatment of, migrant workers; the rights of “irregular” workers; restrictions on freedom of assembly, and the continued use of the National Security Law.

However, the proposed revision of the Criminal Procedure Act in the Republic of Korea sets in place many new measures to prevent abuses during criminal investigation, including provisions for non-custodial inquiries and rights to an attorney.

Thailand’s military decisively reasserted its prerogative to determine the shape and direction of the nation following the coup of last September. The army has awarded vast increases in funding to itself with no outside accountability, and reestablished a cold-war era command to oversee domestic affairs. And while it announced investigations into the human rights violations of the former government, it firmly blocked efforts to investigate killings, torture and other abuses committed under its administration, particularly those of soldiers.

Malaysia has resorted to its draconian Internal Security Act, which provides for detention without trial, to quell segments of its restive population.

At least 23 human-rights lawyers, activists and opposition politicians were arrested.

On November 25, an estimated 30,000 ethnic Indians from across the country converged in Kuala Lumpur to highlight what they perceived to be systematic ethnic marginalization and religious discrimination by the government. Many believe the embattled premier is on the brink of ordering a major crackdown against dissent.

In South Asia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and India all suffered human rights setbacks.

China continued its top ranking as the world’s bad boy when it comes to human rights abuses. China today is the world’s biggest prison for journalists (33 detained), cyber-dissidents (49 detained) and free speech activists. In all, about 100 of them are currently serving prison sentences in appalling conditions after being convicted on charges of political dissent.

The world’s rights violator remains a member in good standing in the United Nations as its shows off its economic prowess to mask the prevalence of human rights violations.

When it came to human rights of our fellowmen in Asia, 2007 was a year of double standards.

We in North America portrayed ourselves as global defenders of human rights. But the litany above shows we did very little.