Statement at the 57th Sesssion of the UN Human Rights Council
Adoption of the UPR report of Cambodia
Delivered by Juli Lopez Arenas
Mr. President,
CIVICUS and FORUM-ASIA welcomes Cambodia’s engagement in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process. During the previous cycle, Cambodia received 50 recommendations on civic space issues and accepted 35 of them. However, in reality the government did not implement any of the recommendations.
In this cycle, we note that Cambodia received 48 recommendations on civic space and has supported 41 including to protect fundamental freedoms, amend laws and regulations in line with the ICCPR and to cease harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrest and unjust prosecution of political opposition, human rights defenders and journalists.
However, Cambodia failed to accept recommendations to release imprisoned political prisoners, journalists and human rights defenders, repeal incitement (Article 494 and 495) and defamation laws and reverse the closure of media outlets.
In recent years, scores of human rights defenders, political activists, trade unionist and journalists have been harassed or criminalised. Highly politicised courts mean that those arbitrarily detained are often held for prolonged periods in pretrial detention and have no chance of getting a fair trial. Independent media outlets have been shut down and peaceful protests met with arbitrary arrests and excessive force.
Mr President, we urge the government of Cambodia to release all human rights defenders including those from the Mother Nature movement and cease its harassment of CSOs like CENTRAL. It must also review or repeal all restrictive laws include on incitement, defamation, the Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations (LANGO) and the Law on Peaceful Demonstrations and provide civil society members, HRDs and journalists with a safe and secure environment in which to carry out their work without reprisals.
We thank you.
