UN human rights envoy meets Cambodian leader

2010-01-19
Associated Press

A United Nations envoy said discussions on human rights with Cambodia's prime minister made progress Tuesday after years of animosity between the two sides over the thorny issue.

U.N. special rapporteur Surya Subedi said he held wide-ranging discussions on human rights issues with Prime Minister Hun Sen, and talks were amiable.

Yash Ghai, the former U.N. envoy, constantly clashed with Hun Sen's government over human rights. Ghai had reported that many Cambodians lived in constant fear of having their land stolen by real estate developers and had no recourse because of a corrupt judiciary.

Hun Sen once described Ghai as "unfit," saying he was sent to Cambodia to "curse" his government.

"I am very pleased with the meeting and the progress we have made this morning," Subedi told reporters. "It was a meeting of substance; we discussed a wide range of issues, and we have made progress here for the betterment of the people of Cambodia."

Om Yentieng, head of the government's human rights committee, told reporters the two sides agreed to bury their differences and cooperate in the future. How long such cooperation lasts depends upon the U.N. human rights office in Cambodia, he said.

Subedi arrived Monday on a two-week mission to examine if state institutions were properly addressing human rights violations. The issue of alleged forced land evictions was discussed with Hun Sen, he said.

Last October, Subedi told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva that freedom of speech was deteriorating in Cambodia after several government critics were convicted of defamation.

Ending U.N. mandate imperils human rights

February 14, 2008

By LAO MONG HAY
UPI Asia Online

Column: Rule by Fear

HONG KONG, China, The Cambodian government is bound by the Paris Peace Agreements that were concluded in 1991 to end a protracted war in the country. Under these agreements, a field office of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights was established in Cambodia, and the U.N. secretary-general appointed a special representative, all to monitor human rights conditions and help the Cambodian government honor its obligations under these agreements.

From the beginning, however, there has been friction between this U.N. field office and special representative on the one hand, and the Cambodian government on the other. The former has issued reports and statements critical of the latter's human rights performance and its disregard for recommendations on improving human rights.

The friction came into the open in 2006 and has since grown worse, as the Cambodian government has mounted continual attacks on the fourth special representative, Professor Yash Ghai from Kenya, for his public reports and statements critical of the human rights situation in Cambodia.

In a speech to a Human Rights Day rally on Dec. 10, Ghai, during his fourth visit to Cambodia, noted among other things a psychosis of fear among numerous communities and families, especially among those facing eviction due to land-grabbing: "fear of the state, fear of political and economic saboteurs, fear of greedy individuals and corporations, fear of the police and the courts."

In a statement at the end of his visit, he added that "state authorities, as well as companies and politically well-connected individuals, show scant respect for the rule of law" and that the courts and legal profession "have failed the people of Cambodia woefully."

Hun Sen, prime minister of Cambodia, took Ghai's remarks as an "insult" to the Cambodian people and government, and lashed out at him with diatribes, calling Ghai "deranged" and "a long-term tourist," for instance. He also threatened to close the U.N. field office. He then informed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that the Cambodian government "is now considering whether the U.N. secretary-general's special representative is 'still necessary' as stipulated" in the Paris Peace Agreements. Hun Sen urged the United Nations to spend the money for human rights in Cambodia elsewhere.

However, in all their attacks on Ghai, Hun Sen and his officials have not disputed the veracity of his reports and statements on human rights conditions in the country. Reality has only confirmed what Ghai has noted. Seventeen years after the signing of the peace agreements the Cambodian government has not been able to honor many of its main obligations under these agreements. It has not taken effective measures to ensure that the policies and practices of ill-treatment and repression of the past shall never be allowed to return as stipulated in the agreements.

Although the Cambodian government has ratified many relevant international instruments, it has not ratified the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights whereby aggrieved persons can bring cases to the U.N. Human Rights Committee for adjudication if they are not satisfied with rulings by national adjudication bodies.

Furthermore, it has not established state institutions for liberal, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law worthy of their names. From top to bottom, all these institutions are under the control of the ruling party, the Cambodian People's Party. State power, as Ghai remarked in 2006, is very much concentrated in the hands of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is known as "the strongman of Cambodia."

Moreover, there is no independent judiciary to adjudicate and enforce human rights for aggrieved individuals. This legal institution is very much under political control as "99 percent of judges and prosecutors" are members of the ruling party. It is also widely acknowledged to be very corrupt as well. In addition, there is not an independent national human rights institution, ombudsman, anti-corruption body or police oversight agency which could help aggrieved individuals attain redress and bring human rights violators to justice.

Many of the fundamental rights enumerated in the peace agreements, such as freedom of assembly and association, due process and equality before the law and protection from the arbitrary deprivation of property or deprivation of private property without just compensation, have not been observed, respected or protected. Peaceful public demonstrations are practically banned. Land-grabbing is rife. In 2007, it affected more than 5,000 families who were forcibly evicted from their homes and land without just compensation.

The Cambodian government moreover has not supported the right of all Cambodian citizens to undertake activities which would promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms. Instead, human rights defenders frequently face threats and intimidation, or even death, when the government sees them as aligning with the opposition.

In such circumstances, and so long as Cambodia has not ratified the First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, nor honored its human rights obligations under the peace agreements nor established proper institutions for liberal, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law, especially an independent and impartial judiciary, the U.N. secretary-general's special representative for human rights in Cambodia is very necessary.

Whether Hun Sen and his government like him or not, this special representative, together with the field office of the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, remain as the last and only bulwark for the protection of human rights in Cambodia.

Appeasing strongman Hun Sen at this juncture by ending Ghai's nomination, closing the U.N. field office and/or terminating the U.N. human rights mandate altogether would remove this bulwark and imperil human rights in Cambodia. The policies and practices of ill-treatment and repression of the past that the peace agreements had set out to prevent would then be free to terrorize the country with all the consequences the long-suffering Cambodian people know only too well.
--
(Lao Mong Hay is currently a senior researcher at the Asian Human Rights Commission in Hong Kong. He was previously director of the Khmer Institute of Democracy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and a visiting professor at the University of Toronto in 2003. In 1997, he received an award from Human Rights Watch and the Nansen Medal in 2000 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.)

Yim Ghechsè's Poem: Sen, Don't Insult

Note: Poet Yim Guechsè now has his own website at
http://kamnapyimguechse.blogspot.com

Kem Sokha criticizes Hun Sen for attacking Prof. Yash Ghai

Friday, January 4, 2008
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

In a speech attacking once more Prof. Yash Ghai, the UN Special Envoy on Human Rights in Cambodia, prime minister Hun Sen asked Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-general, to send Prof. Yash Ghai to work in Kenya where killings are taking place following the results of the presidential election. Kem Sokha, HRP president, criticized Hun Sen’s action, calling it a useless war of words. Kem Sokha said that Hun Sen should take heed of Prof. Ghai’s criticisms, in order to make improvement, and this would be more beneficial than starting a war of words to attack Prof. Ghai. Hun Sen rejected several requests to meet with Prof. Ghai who criticized the human rights condition in Cambodia, Hun Sen even called Prof. Ghai a god without virtue because Prof. Ghai criticized his regime.

Hun Sen Turns Kenyan Turmoil on UN Nemesis [-Hun Sen has nothing to say to defend his personal records]

"Whatever [Ghai] said about Cambodia is his country's problem, not Cambodia's problem" - Hun Sen

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

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Thursday slammed UN human rights envoy Yash Ghai and his homeland, Kenya, which has undergone political turmoil in recent weeks.

In the latest round of verbal attacks against the UN secretary-general's rights representative to Cambodia, who has been critical of the prime minister and his government, Hun Sen said Ghai should be sent "to work in his own country." "This is the New Year message I want to send to the secretary-general: Whatever [Ghai] said about Cambodia is his country's problem, not Cambodia's problem," Hun Sen said in a public address in Phnom Penh.

In December, Ghai, who is from Kenya, reported that Cambodians could rise up against the government, which has failed to provide them with security, as more and more land is stolen from Cambodia's poor.

Ghai was shunned on his visit by government officials and met only with human rights workers and the displaced rural poor.

"Everything that happened in his country, he compares it to Cambodia. The systematic violation of human rights happens in his country," Hun Sen said. "The president [of Kenya] ordered the shootings, so the soldiers have to carry out the order. Now, the death toll is over 300. There is no rule of law in the country. Even on New Year's Day there is killing. Even people who were trying to hide in a church were killed. So, Yash Ghai, who is the UN secretary-general's special rights representative to Cambodia, tries to come to Cambodia to teach us."

Hun Sen also compared the post-election rioting to Cambodia's killing fields.

"There is killing and bloody violence there. Kenya is almost becoming a killing field," the Associated Press quoted Hun Sen saying Thursday.

Violence in Kenya: Should it be compared to the "Killing fields" or "Hun Sen's bloody coup d'etat"?

Cambodia's leader calls Kenyan violence the 'killing fields'

Thursday, January 3, 2008
The Associated Press

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodia's prime minister compared Kenya's bloody rioting to the "killing fields," continuing a scathing attack Thursday against a Kenyan-born U.N. envoy who criticized the Southeast Asian nation's human rights record.

Prime Minister Hun Sen said Cambodia's troubles were nothing compared to the situation in Kenya, where an estimated 300 people have been killed in rioting since the African nation's highly contested Dec. 27 presidential election.

"There is killing and bloody violence there. Kenya is almost becoming a killing field," Hun Sen said, using the term synonymous with the Khmer Rouge's genocidal reign of Cambodia in the 1970s which led to some 1.7 million deaths.

Hun Sen has persistently denounced Yash Ghai, the U.N. special envoy for human rights in Cambodia, since the envoy's Dec. 1-10 visit to the country.

Ghai criticized the government's alleged rights violations and called the judiciary "a perversity." He predicted that Cambodians were eventually "going to rise" against the government.

"All the points he raised in his human rights reports about Cambodia are now happening in his own country," Hun Sen said.

Hun Sen, who has had a prickly relationship with U.N. envoys, has vowed to never meet Ghai. Hun Sen shunned the Kenyan constitutional lawyer during his recent trip.

A Misplaced Anger

Prof. Yash Ghai, UN Special Envoy on Human Rights in Cambodia (Photo: AFP)

Op-Ed by Jayakhmer
Posted at http://modernprogressivekhmer.blogspot.com

Chastising the UN special envoy over his comments about Cambodia’s current state of human rights issues does not solve the real problems.

The reality is that poor Khmer people are facing illegal forced evictions, and for many, their lands have been taking away. Their suffering is an urgent human rights issue that needs immediate resolution.

Who else is more appropriate than the UN Special Representative of Human Rights for Cambodia to discuss these issues when the government does not walk the talk? The failure to put a complete stop to land grabbing and illegal forced evictions are completely the government’s responsibility.

Mr.Yash Ghai, an Indian borne of Kenya, is a Special Representative for Human Rights in Cambodia. He was appointed to this post by the United Nation Secretary General Kofi Annan in November of 2005.

I know that good diplomacy requires that the issues should be discussed quietly behind closed door. On the other side of the same coin, I can certainly understand the special envoy’s position. His frustration over the lack of progress on this paramount issue must be tremendous that he made a choice to speak about the issue publicly.

It may play well into the notion of toughness by making speeches and personal attacks against Mr. Ghai, but ultimately, the Khmer people and the international community want to see the result.

The question is can the government’s intransigency and its toughness stop land grabbing and illegal forced evictions.

Now that the Cambodian government makes all the fuzz over the issues, it has no choice but to prove to the world of its effectiveness by ceasing completely of these illegal activities.

Otherwise, the Khmer people and the world will see the dispute between the government and the UN special envoy as a misplaced anger.

On top of that Mr. Ghai did not say any thing that has not been said before by others.

For example, in the August 2007 International Monetary Fund Article IV Consultation – staff report, it states, “Poor governance weakens the environment for broad-based development. Human and institutional capacity remains very weak, constraining the ability of the public sector to contribute to poverty reduction. Cambodia ranks very poorly on indicators of economic governance, hindering gains in external competitiveness. Corruption is endemic and human rights problems continue. Land grabbing and illegal loggings with damaging economic, social and environmental effects are widely reported.”

The Cambodian government may complaint over the behavior of the UN special envoy, but if what he did can shed some light and bring the world’s attention to this important human right issue on behalf of the poor Khmer whose desperate voice otherwise could not be heard, Mr. Ghai, perhaps, knows exactly what he is doing and not “human right tourist” after all.

Hun Sen’s gov’t mulling the closing of the UN Human Rights office in Cambodia

22 December 2007
By Phan Sophat
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

On Saturday, a government official declared that he is currently mulling the idea of shutting down the UN office in charge of Human Rigths in Cambodia, in the very near future, because it is no longer needed.

Khieu Kanharith, government spokesman and minister of Information, discussed about the reason for this closure plan: “In the past, we planned on shutting it down once already, however, based on the request made by Kofi Annan, during his meeting with Samdach Dek Cho Hun Sen, he asked for an extension (of this office). Now, we believe that this extension is enough, maybe the prime minister did not decide yet, but for me, I think that it is sufficient now.”

The declaration issued by Khieu Kanharith was made after the successive criticisms leveled by Hun Sen against Prof. Yash Ghia, the UN Special Envoy on Human Rights in Cambodia, because Prof. Ghai issued a report on his 10-day visit to Cambodia on 10 December 2007. In this report, Prof. Ghai openty criticized the leadership of the current Cambodian regime, saying that pitiful violations of human rights are being perpetrated on Cambodian people. He also criticized the fact the Cambodian people are living in fear of the justice system, in fear of the police and the local authority, in fear of seeing their lands being grabbed.

(In response to Prof. Ghai’s report), Hun Sen called him rude, and he also called those who support Prof. Ghai’s report as being cheap people.

Regarding Khieu Kanharith’s declaration on the closure of the UN Human Rights office in Cambodia, Ou Virak, President of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), said that if, indeed, the decision will be made to close this office, it would be a black mark for Cambodia.

Ou Virak said: “First, if we reach to a point of closing the (UN) Human Rights office, this means that we are following the same path as Burma. If we talk about rights to this closure, we can claim so, but we cannot talk about the hardship of Cambodian people. In some instances, a number of countries are using their own people as hostage, this means that if the population does follow their orders, they will oppress their own people, this is not right.”

The UN Human Rights office in Cambodia was set up after 1993, following the general election supervised by the UN, at the end of the UNTAC era.

This office is in charge of reviewing the protection and the reporting, etc…, of the human rights condition in Cambodia to the UN.

Ou Virak: Those who violate human rights and curb the freedom of expression rights of Cambodian people, are the ones who look down on their own people

Hun Sen continues his attack on Prof. Yash Ghai and his supporters

20 December 2007
By Sok Serey Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

On Thursday, prime minister Hun Sen continued his criticisms on Prof. Yash Ghai, the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-general, and he now also added (to his criticisms) the supporters of Prof. Yash Ghai. Hun Sen severely criticized the supporters of Prof. Ghai’s report, and he compared them to people who allow others to look down on Cambodians, their own race.

During a distribution of diplomas to students on Thursday, Hun Sen said: “Counting people in Cambodia who support the report of this man (Prof. Ghai), those who support this report are cheap and worthless people, they are extremely cheap by allowing others to look down on their own race.”

Hun Sen’s recent reaction came after Prof. Yash Ghai, the UN Special Envoy on Human Rights in Cambodia, sent a letter dated 17 December to clarify the criticisms and the accusations made by Hun Sen on 12 December 2007.

In this letter, Prof. Ghai said that he is not a representative of the Kenyan people, and he is not an employee of the UN either. He does not receive any salary for his work, and he is an independent expert appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations.

In his letter Prof. Ghai indicated that he is ready to discuss it in detail, and will listen to the views of the Government at any time on human rights issues.

There is no sign showing that Hun Sen or high-ranking government officials will welcome any discussions with Prof. Ghai.

Hun Sen’s latest criticisms on Thursday, were aimed at a group of Cambodians who supported Prof. Ghai’s report, and he compared these supporters as people who allow others to look down on their own race. Ou Virak, President of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) reacted back to Hun Sen’s comment by saying that those who violate human rights and curb the freedom of expression rights of Cambodian people, are the ones who look down on their own people.

Ou Virak said: “It’s those who prevent Cambodian people from voicing their opinions, such as preventing them from holding a demonstration, or from expressing their opinions, those are the ones who violate and look down of Khmer people. As for the foreigners, they are all working to defend human rights in Cambodia, I am saying this not because I am looking down on the people.”

On 18 December, Sea Kosal, Cambodian ambassador to the UN, sent a letter to UN Secretary-general Ba Ki Moon, charging that, during the 10-day visit to Cambodia by Prof. Yash Ghai, he looked down and scorned the Khmer people and the Cambodian government, by saying that Cambodia is an anarchic and lawless nation.