Statements
Statement | Cambodia’s Supreme Court Declares Two scapegoats of Union Leader’s Murder Not Guilty
25 September 2013
We, the undersigned organisations, welcome the long overdue decision made by the Supreme Court this afternoon to free Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun and drop all charges against them .
Statement | Cambodia’s Government and Donors Must Act Now to Prevent Escalation of Violence
25 September 2013
Gravely concerned at the Cambodian authorities’ repeated use of excessive force to prevent and suppress the people’s exercise of the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, the undersigned non-governmental organizations call on the Cambodian and foreign governments to take immediate action to prevent the human rights situation from deteriorating further.
Statement | Indiscriminate Police Brutality and Death amid Mass Post-Election Protest Condemned by Civil Society
16 September 2013
We, the undersigned organizations, condemn in the strongest terms the indiscriminate police brutality last night that left one young person dead and several more injured when armed forces were given the green light to use live ammunition in a crowd of commuters, local residents and demonstrators.
After a largely peaceful day of demonstrations marking the first day of a planned three-day protest by opposition party CNRP, tensions escalated late on Sunday night. Barbed wire barricades had cut off major arteries of the city throughout the day, resulting in traffic chaos at key locations in the capital.
Statement | Respect the right to freedom of peaceful assembly
5 September 2013
As the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) prepares to hold a peaceful “meditative” assembly on 7 September 2013 to demand an independent investigation into what it alleges are irregularities, including fraud, around the national election of 28 July, the undersigned non-governmental organizations and civil society groups make the following statement.
Statement | 2013 Elections Fraught with Fraud, Irregularities and Intimidation
24 August 2013
In a brief released today, LICADHO has compiled key observations and serious discrepancies witnessed during Cambodia’s 2013 National Assembly elections. Problems were documented in an alarming percentage of the stations visited; ranging from voter roll irregularities, to indications of intentional fraud or vote rigging, to intimidation. While the briefing is not a quantitative representation, it reveals problematic trends and ongoing issues that must be addressed.
Statement | A Symbol of Peace Turned Inside Out: Two Students Entrapped
19 August 2013
The Cambodian Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) and Cambodian League for the Promotion & Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) call on the authorities to drop all charges against students Tut Chanpanha and Sok Dalis. We similarly call for charges against small shop owner Lim Lypaeung and Hiv Borin to be dropped.
Statement | Keep Media Free: Unrestricted Access to Social Media
7 August 2013
We, the undersigned civil society groups, urge Metfone, an Internet service provider (ISP) registered and operating in Cambodia, to issue a full explanation of today’s temporary blocking of Facebook, as well as the ongoing unavailability of the Ki-Media website.
Earlier this morning, at about 9 AM, Metfone users began to report that they were denied access to Facebook. The outage lasted for more than three hours.
Statement | Child Labor on Sugar Plantations in Cambodia is Well Documented
23 July 2013
The Guardian newspaper recently ran a damning expose of child labor on the KSL Group sugar plantations in Cambodia that supply the sugar giant Tate & Lyle Sugars. Rather than acting quickly to address the abuses, the companies seem to have resorted to a strategy of denial and legal bullying in an attempt to defend their tarnished reputations.
Statement | Continued Violence Intensifies the Need for Resolution to Ongoing Land Conflicts in Phnom Penh
3 July 2013
In the wake of another two days of protests by members of the Boeung Kak community in Phnom Penh, who are demanding just resolution to a long-standing land conflict affecting their community before the national election on 28 July, we the undersigned non-governmental organizations (NGOs) wish to condemn the use of disproportionate force against protesters by the municipal police and other security forces. These protests are just the latest in a series of protests which have resulted in the use of violence or disproportionate force against protesters calling for an end to land disputes.
Statement | We All Need Voices and Choices: Civil Society Urges Government to Keep Media Free
1 July 2013
We, the undersigned civil society organizations, welcome the government’s decision to rescind shocking measures issued last week to censor Cambodia’s local news media in the final weeks before the July 28 National Assembly elections, and condemn the decision ever to implement such measures. We remain deeply concerned about an order to ban foreign news reporting of election polling which will come into force five days before the vote.
We condemn this ban in the strongest possible terms and urge the government to remove all restrictions on the news media during this critical pre-election period. We also call for the government to guarantee that it will not repeat its attempts to censor the airwaves or any other media, including social media on the internet.
Statement | Ex-Governor’s Slap on Wrist for Shooting a Stark Contrast to Harsh Penalties for Human Rights Defenders
25 June 2013
Cambodian Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) and Cambodian League for the Promotion & Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) welcome the conviction of former Bavet governor Chhouk Bandith for shooting three garment workers last year, but condemn the light sentence – one-and-a-half years in prison – for actions that amounted an attempted triple-homicide.
The sentence is little more than a slap on the wrist, and is emblematic of Cambodia’s pervasive culture of impunity for the well-connected elite.
Statement | Cambodia’s Legislature Dismantled on the Eve of the National Elections
10 June 2013
Cambodia’s National Assembly – its key legislative organ – has been thrust into a Constitutional crisis less than two months before the country’s national elections. Last week, the National Assembly’s Permanent Committee, which is comprised entirely of ruling Cambodia People’s Party members, stripped all 29 opposition party members of their parliamentary status. Because this expulsion took place within 6 months of a national election, the seats left empty by the purged parliamentarians were effectively terminated and will remain so under until after the election.
Statement | Cambodian NGOs allege serious abuses linked to Thai sugar giant, Mitr Phol Sugar Corporation
31 May 2013
Two Cambodian NGOs, LICADHO and Equitable Cambodia filed a petition on behalf of 602 complainants about serious human rights violations linked to large sugar concessions held by Thai sugar giant, Mitr Phol Sugar Corporation.
Statement | LICADHO to Mark International Children’s Day with Prison Food Distributions
30 May 2013
LICADHO and its partner NGOs will mark International Children’s Day today by distributing food and materials to children and pregnant women in 14 of Cambodia’s prisons. The children of prison guards, who often live on or near prison grounds, will also receive gifts.
Statement | Appeals Transport for Prisoners Improving, but Not Fixed Yet
29 May 2013
After years of delays, prison authorities have begun transporting provincial prisoners to their appeals hearings in Phnom Penh, but the failure to offer return transport is threatening to undermine progress, a new report by LICADHO has found.
Statement | The Boeung Kak Concession should be a Solution for All Remaining Residents
2 May 2013
The Boeung Kak community and the undersigned civil society groups call for the inclusion of all remaining families into the 12.44ha concession area by the former lake. A new plan unveiled today by the community shows in detail how this could be achieved in a just and equitable fashion.
On August 11, 2011, Prime Minister Hun Sen signed Sub-Decree No. 183, awarding 12.44ha of the Boeung Kak lake area to the community, which since 2007 has been involved in a land dispute with Shukaku Inc., owned by CPP Senator Lao Meng Khin. Since then, 631 families have received titles for their land. However, over 70 families, whose homes are not located within the confines of the concession zone as outlined in the Sub-Decree, have been excluded.
Statement | Preparations for the 2013 Cambodian National Election
2 May 2013
We, the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) listed below, would like to reiterate our support and appeal for a free, fair and legitimate election that is held with the full confidence of all political parties contesting seats as well as members of the public casting their vote in the 2013 general election.
Statement | An Open Letter to International Garment Brands Sourcing from Cambodia
1 May 2013
On this International Labor Day, we, the undersigned civil society groups call upon all international garment brands sourcing from Cambodia to publicly denounce two recent baseless judicial decisions related to the garment sector. The first is the recent imprisonment of Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun. The two men were scapegoated and wrongly convicted in the 2004 murder of labor leader Chea Vichea. The second is the government’s failure to appropriately prosecute Chhouk Bandith, a well-connected former town governor who shot and severely injured three female garment factory workers.
Statement | Denial of Release Pending Appeal Highlights Political Interference in the Cambodian Court System
27 March 2013
LICADHO, Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT), Equitable Cambodia (EC), and Community Legal Education Centre (CLEC) express their deep disappointment at the Supreme Court’s failure to release Boeung Kak land rights activist Yorm Bopha on bail. Bopha’s request was heard this morning by the Supreme Court, while some 100 community activists from Boeung Kak and other communities under threat of eviction rallied outside. Bopha’s young son and her husband Lous Sakorn were also among the crowd.
Statement | Appeal Court Orders Release of Mam Sonando, Kan Sovann and Touch Ream
14 March 2013
We, the undersigned civil society groups, welcome the Court of Appeal’s long-overdue decision today to release independent radio station owner Mam Sonando and his two co-appellants, Touch Ream and Kan Sovann, but caution that a long road remains to rehabilitate Cambodia’s democracy ahead of National Assembly elections in July.
