Cambodia: Right to Freedom of Assembly has Been Severely Violated

Letter by William Gomes Salem-News.com
Salem-News.com Eye on the World report.

(HONK KONG) - As a nation with a history of terrible violence, Cambodia needs to quickly and thoroughly address a very alarming situation; the shooting of three female garment workers in the Bavet town of Svay Rieng province on 20 February 2012.

Information indicates that the shooting took place as 6,000 workers gathered in solidarity in front of the Kaoway Sports Ltd factory; peacefully demonstrating to demand for better working conditions. They are asking for a minimum living wage of US$61/month and lunch allowance. During the demonstration, three unarmed women were shot; two suffering wounds to their arms or legs, and one was seriously injured as the bullet ripped through her thoracic cage.

Our goal with Eye on the World is to illustrate and highlight politically oriented problems and tragedies that traditional media channels don't have time or interest in covering.

The world has its own set of laws that were agreed upon by the ruling nations in 1948, and many people are not aware of this simple fact. At the root of the concept of world citizenry itself, is the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an overriding and supreme law that ensures many essential human rights that governments today fail to observe. Also central to any hope of human success, is the understanding of the human hierarchy of needs, as defined by Abraham Maslow- more information on this at the conclusion of this entry. We must use the Internet as a tool of justice at every junction, and we need to assist all human beings, everywhere, and not allow cultural, racial or religious preferences as determiners.

In this letter to H.E. Ang Vong Vathna, Minister of Justice; and H.E. Sar Kheng, Minister of Interior in Cambodia, William Gomes asks for the assurance that the victims in this case are provided with an “effective remedy notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons in an official capacity” - determined by a competent judicial authority, and that the government takes necessary steps to protect the fundamental right to freedom of assembly in Cambodia, which has been subjected to increasing restrictions. Mr Gomes strongly urges that the government ensure the victim's appearance in court, protect witnesses from intimidation, and issue a guarantee, that in the future, legal process will be carried out in a free, fair and impartial manner meeting international standards. He asks that those who violated the law be properly investigated and prosecuted.

http://www.box.com/s/1b06b96918bc1f7ae1e9

CITA's Letter to H.E, Mr. Surya Subedi, UN Special Envoy for Human Rigths in Cambodia

Democracy SUPPRESSION Park to be inaugurated on 04 November

The Democracy Park, a twisted misnomer,  will be inaugurated on 04 November following the completion of its construction. The park can only accommodate 200 demonstrators at a time. Talk about suppression and violation of freedom of assembly.

CPP Dictatorship ... here it comes!

Teachers prevented from marching on World Teachers' Day

Teachers holding banners asking for better pay and better treatment. The cops prevented them from marching and from gathering in front of the old National Assembly building (All photos: Cambodia Express News)
Rong Chhun (Front right) and Chea Mony (Front left, holding a microphone) led the celebration of the World Teachers' Day
Numerous cops can be seen standing in the public park facing the old NA building to prevent the teachers to gather there.
Roads were blocked to prevent the teachers from gathering in front of the old NA building.

Freedoms of Expression, Association and Assembly: A Shrinking Space in Cambodia - FIDH/OMCT Report

I am coming to believe more strongly by the day that part of the human rights education conducted by civil society must include a pointed, highlighted, bold communication to the potential / current abusers about the perpetual infamy of their crimes, which can be documented, stored and culled with the click of a finger by the world's people... now, or tomorrow, or next year, or 3 decades from now! (Ask Khieu Samphan and his ECCC Gang of Four. And their crimes were pre-Internet age!)

I believe these individuals who are human rights abusers in their heart of hearts care for their reputation and name. Again, think of the ECCC Gang of Four wilting away in detention under the weight of condemnation by history and the current population of the world. Let them try erasing all the odor and vulgarities attached to their names; assuming they can do it in Cambodia, but what about the world - the Human Rights Watch / Amnesty International reports will live forever in cyberspace, in the US, in Japan, in India - forever and ever?

So human rights abusers - take note. You are not invisible or invincible - even if you have temporary impunity. Remember, the long arc of moral history bends toward justice, to paraphrase the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Theary Seng, Phnom Penh, 10 Sept. 2010

Alerted by numerous reports concerning increasing restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly in Cambodia, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of their joint programme, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, decided to conduct an international fact-finding mission on the situation of human rights defenders in the country. The mission was composed of Mr. Jens Tinga, trade union representative (the Netherlands), Ms. Emilie Cuq, lawyer (France), and Mr. Will Fitzgibbon, researcher (Australia) (hereinafter “the Delegation”).

The main objectives of the Delegation, which visited Cambodia between February 14 and 24, 2010, were to investigate the general human rights situation and the environment in which human rights defenders carry out their work, and to assess the impact of the existing legal framework and bills announced or proposed by the Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia on human rights defenders: the draft Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organisations, the draft Law on Trade Unions, the Anti-Corruption Law1, as well as the new Criminal Code and the recently-adopted Law on Peaceful Demonstrations (December 2009).

The Delegation paid particular attention to the situation of human rights defenders active in the areas of forced evictions, labour and trade unionism as well as the media.

The mission was prepared with cooperation from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

During its 10-day mission, the Delegation met with representatives of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) and the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), with journalists, land activists, trade union leaders, international and national NGO leaders, foreign diplomats and representatives of international organisations such as the European Union, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), as well as with members of the Cambodian judiciary (prosecutors, judges, lawyers and the Secretary-General of the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia), provincial governors and senior officials of the Ministry of Labour. These meetings took place in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Ratanakiri. The Delegation wishes to thank ADHOC and LICADHO for their invaluable help in preparing this mission. The Delegation also wishes to thank the Cambodian authorities who accepted to meet with the mission members.

Click here to read the entire report (PDF)

Cambodia: Freedom of Assembly in Freedom Park

9 May 2010
Written by Mong Palatino Global Voices Online

Good news: Cambodians can now organize a protest action against the government without a fear of being violently dispersed by the police.

Bad news: Protests are only allowed in the newly established Freedom Park. And protesters need a permit to use the Freedom Park.

The Freedom Park is located far from government buildings and the parliament. Assemblies that number more than 200 are allowed if the organizers are able to secure a permit. The Freedom Park can accommodate about 5,000 people. The government has announced that protests in other areas will be outlawed.

Cambodia's Freedom Park. Political cartoon by Sacravatoons

Some bloggers have described the Freedom Park as “Round-up Park” or “Deprived Freedom Park.” The Son of the Khmer Empire reacts:

In my point of view this so-called freedom park is usless and it will be constitutionally used as a suppressing instrument for Hun Xen (Prime Minister of Cambodia) government to successfully deprive the freedom of the assembly of the people of Cambodia if the Demonstration Law is not amended.

The blogger is referring to the Demonstration Law which was passed last June 2009 which critics cited as a repressive legal measure. The law allows protests to take place only between 6am to 6pm in a designated freedom park.

But some commenters are happy with the establishment of a Freedom Park. Here is an anonymous commenter:

These so-called critics sound more like cynics to me. The fact that the city hall decides to set up a proper place for demonstration and voicing concern and you call this silencing? What do these people want?

Before, they said they are oppressed to cast any voice, now they are given a platform, they call it silencing

…not to mention chaotic demonstration can block traffic make traffic jam, etc… good for authority to designate an area by law

Phnom Penh Municipality’s Impossible Requirement For Holding Forum Violates Freedom Of Assembly

Friday, 12 June 2009
Press Release: Asian Human Rights Commission

Cambodia: Phnom Penh Municipality’s Impossible Requirement For Holding Forum Violates Freedom Of Assembly

Over the recent months, a human rights NGO, the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR), has been making arrangements to hold a public forum for concerned officials and residents of Boeung Kak Lake in Phnom Penh to discuss the issue of the eviction of these residents without just compensation. The Municipality of Phnom Penh has leased, allegedly illegally, the natural lake called Boeung Kak and its surroundings to Shukaku Inc., a private development company owned by a Senator from the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), for a period of 99 years for US$79 million. This municipality has since been pressuring the residents of the area to accept its compensation package, an offer which the residents have repeatedly rejected.

The CCHR has encountered continuous difficulties in finding a venue and getting a permit from the municipal authorities for this particular meeting due to various forms of social control. On Friday 5 June at the very end of that day’s work and the end of the working week, the Municipality of Phnom Penh served the CCHR director with a summons to appear before its officials, police officers and officials from concerned departments on Monday 8 June at 2:30PM. The director of the CCHR was out of the country, and in the morning of Monday the CCHR office submitted, by hand, a letter to the Municipality seeking the postponement of the meeting until he returned later in the week. The Municipality refused to acknowledge receipt of the letter and insisted the meeting be held as shown in the summons.

The CCHR was compelled to comply. Its officials enlisted the participation of an official from the field Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in the scheduled meeting. A number of officials from other NGOs lent support but were not allowed in and had to wait outside. At the end of the discussions on the holding of the forum, the municipal officials insisted that they would not consider any application for a permit to hold any forum for the residents of the area until the CCHR submitted with that application a receipt for payment of rent for the venue with the amount clearly stated and the signature of the owner of the premises.

The CCHR had already met that requirement when, on 25 May, a guest house called Lazy Fish near the lake agreed to rent its premises to the CCHR as the venue for US$250. It booked the premises and made a deposit of US$50. The forum was then planned for 12 June. But hardly a week later, on 1 June, the head and deputy head of the village where the guest house is located threatened the owner, saying: “If you let the CCHR conduct the public forum, your quest house will close after the forum.” Several days later the owner was summoned to their office. After his meeting with the commune officials, he informed the CCHR that he no longer wanted to rent his place for its forum unless the CCHR could secure a permit from the municipal authorities. On the morning of 8 June when the CCHR went to meet with the municipal officials, a police force of about 20 men surrounded the Lazy Fish guesthouse and shut it down on the charge that its business license had expired.

Before it found the Lazy Fish guest house, the CCHR had also been denied the yard of a mosque and a Buddhist monastery in the area when officials of these religious places, afraid of falling out of favour with their ‘benefactors’, withdrew their original consent to allow the use of their property. As a result the CCHR had to postpone its forum. Upon this postponement, local officials warned a woman resident who was distributing leaflets announcing the forum of the consequences of her activity. They told her, “Why do you continue to call and incite residents to go to the meeting now that the forum has already been called off? You should quietly contact the company. Beware! You could be sent to prison.”

Such threats and intimidation, and especially the way the authorities shut down Lazy Fish guesthouse after it had rented its premises, have created a climate of fear in the locality. It is now impossible for the CCHR to find anyone who is willing to rent their premises to be used as a venue for the forum. This means that the CCHR cannot obtain either premises or a receipt for payment of rent to submit with its application for permit to the Municipality of Phnom Penh. It is now a catch 22 situation. In order to be able to rent premises they must obtain a certificate from the local officials and the local officials will not issue a permit unless they can provide documentary evidence of having rented premises.

As a result, the residents of Boeung Kak Lake cannot exercise their constitutional right to freedom of assembly and expression, and in a matter of time they, like hundreds of thousands of their fellow Cambodians in a similar situation, will be forcibly evicted from their homes and lands without just compensation.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) holds that, by instilling fear in the population and then imposing a requirement which is impossible to meet, the Municipality of Phnom Penh has denied the residents of Boeung Kak Lake the enjoyment of their constitutional right to freedom of assembly and expression. The AHRC strongly urges the Cambodian government to order the Municipality of Phnom Penh to withdraw this requirement and remove any other obstacles to the holding of the forum so that those residents can exercise their rights.

About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.