LICADHO Awarded at WITNESS Focus for Change dinner
Published on 2 December 2010
LICADHO President and Founder Dr Pung Chhiv Kek and Venerable Luon Sovath accepted an award on behalf of LICADHO as guests of honor at the 2010 Annual Focus for Change benefit dinner held in New York by LICADHO partner WITNESS, an international human rights organization which uses video to open the eyes of the world to human rights violations.
The 2010 benefit dinner saw WITNESS honoring LICADHO with an award for its use of video to document evidence in the ongoing struggle to end forced evictions in Cambodia. The partnership begun in 2007, when WITNESS provided LICADHO with 50 small handheld FLIP cameras for use by community activists in 18 Cambodia provinces to film and document cases of human rights abuse. Since then, LICADHO and WITNESS have worked closely together to produce advocacy videos on the plight of land-grabbing victims, creating international support to halt specific evictions.
WITNESS has trained LICADHO staff in using video in online and on-the-ground campaigns, allowing LICADHO to document forced evictions of citizens whose land has been seized for 'development projects'. Footage is filmed by both LICADHO staff and community activists, capturing the abuses that Cambodian victims of land-grabbing experience from the moment their homes are scheduled for eviction, to demolishment, to aftermath.
The videos produced act as a catalyst in bringing communities together to organize themselves and secure justice; they provide the public with footage of actual human rights violations, can be used for evidence in court, and give grassroots activists an international voice. They have been seen by the government of Cambodia, international government representatives and screened to the US Human Rights Commission, and been used by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Dr. Pung Chhiv Kek, President of LICADHO, and the Venerable Luon Sovath, a human rights defender known as the 'multi- media monk', represented LICADHO at the Gala Dinner, accepting the award on LICADHO's behalf. Hosted by musician and human rights activist Peter Gabriel, the event included performances by Sheryl Crow and Jimmy Cliff. Both Dr. Kek and the Venerable received standing ovations for their speeches from an audience of over 400 people, all of whom left wearing a blue Krama as a sign of solidarity with communities resisting the forced takeover of their land, homes and livelihoods through forced evictions.
'Communities facing forced eviction are now using cameras in their struggle. We have been threatened, but we won't stop - because these images tell the truth.'
- The Venerable Luon Sovath
