New UN Special Rapporteur on Cambodia to report to the UN
Human Rights Council after inaugural mission
PHNOM PENH / GENEVA (25 September 2015) – The new United
Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, Rhona
Smith, today called on the Cambodian authorities to urgently address the issues
which have created widespread discontent, including land and labour disputes,
through a human rights-centred approach.
“Strengthening further the rule of law, developing and
ensuring the independence of those bodies with specific roles in the protection
of human rights, particularly the judiciary, is essential for building the
stable democratic nation that Cambodians aspire to live in,” Ms. Smith said* at
the end of her first official visit to Cambodia, where she met with Prime
Minister Hun Sen.
“The Prime Minister raised the issue of discrimination, a
matter of concern in any State,” said the expert, who will report to the UN
Human Rights Council next week, on 29 September 2015. “Whether indigenous
peoples and land rights, women and access to justice, asylum seekers and the
recognition of refugee status, workers and labour rights, urban poor and the
treatment of street people, rural poor and land concession resettlements, the
potential for discrimination to undermine respect for human rights is omnipresent.”
Ms. Smith noted that ensuring respect for all human rights
and fundamental freedoms is the primary obligation of any State which accepts
international human rights treaties. This includes, she said, the adoption of
laws which respect human rights norms and legally guarantee the fair and equal
enjoyment of the rights contained in those treaties.
“Several key laws with considerable implications for human
rights have been adopted recently in Cambodia, including the Law on
Associations and Non-Governmental Organisations (LANGO), and several more are
in progress, including the draft trade union law and the draft cybercrime law.
Ensuring inclusiveness and transparency in law-making is an integral
requirement for democracy and good governance,” the human rights expert
recalled.
The Special Rapporteur described the area of land
concessions as one of the most complex human rights issues Cambodia is
currently facing. She noted, however, that the process of conferring land
titles and redressing problematic land concessions granted in the past is
beginning to see a degree of success, as many of those that have suffered from
forced evictions continue to seek justice.
“I encourage the continued review of the concessions,
including their cancellation and redistribution as appropriate. As acknowledged
by many, there is still much to be done, particularly for the most
marginalised, such as indigenous peoples,” she said.
“The ability of all persons to obtain redress and contribute
to finding solutions to land, labour and other disputes often depends on their
ability to peacefully exercise their fundamental freedoms of expression,
assembly and association,” the human rights expert stressed. “These are the
building blocks on which many of their other rights depend.”
In her view, “much of the continuation of peace and
stability in the months and years ahead will depend on how well these rights
and these freedoms are respected, and how justly the domestic laws that govern
them in Cambodia, including the Law on Associations and NGOs (LANGO) and the
Law on Peaceful Demonstrations, are implemented across the country,” she
highlighted.
In that regard, Ms. Smith warned that during her
information-gathering visit she noticed “widely diverging interpretations of
permissible restrictions of these rights under international human rights law.”
“The balance between protecting these freedoms and
maintaining public order can be a difficult one for any State. Nevertheless
that balance must be struck fairly and in accordance with international human
rights law,” she said. “I will be paying particularly close attention to these
rights during the discharge of my functions.”
Finally, the Special Rapporteur pointed out that education,
particularly human rights education, is a key to securing a just and more
equitable future for the people of Cambodia.
“Ensuring human rights awareness among children and youth,
law enforcement officers, parliamentarians, all levels of government and the
judiciary will help Cambodia to better fulfil its human rights obligations,”
Ms. Smith said. “Human rights education should, in my view, be a cornerstone of
Cambodia’s future but also its present.”
During her nine-day visit to Cambodia, the expert also met
with a wide range of Government ministers, as well as representatives of the
National Assembly, the Senate, and the Cambodian Human Rights Committee. She
also met with representatives of the civil society and local communities, in
addition to the UN Country Team and the donor community.
(*) Check the Special Rapporteur’s full end-of-mission
statement:
http://cambodia.ohchr.org/WebDOCs/DocStatements/2015/SR_statement24092015_Eng.pdf
ENDS
Professor Rhona Smith (United Kingdom) was appointed by the
United Nations Human Rights Council in March 2015, succeeding Professor Surya
P. Subedi, who completed his six-year term on the mandate in March 2015. The
mandate of the Special Rapporteur derives from the Paris Peace Accords
Agreement on a comprehensive political settlement of the Cambodian conflict.
Ms. Smith is a Professor of international human rights in the United Kingdom.
Ms. Smith has also been a visiting professor at Pannasastra University in
Cambodia where she worked on designing and developing course curricula for the
re-launch of Cambodia’s first master level program in human rights law.
The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the
Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest
body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name
of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that
address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of
the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not
UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from
any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.
UN Human Rights, country page – Cambodia:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Countries/AsiaRegion/Pages/KHIndex.aspx and http://cambodia.ohchr.org
For additional information and media enquiries, please
contact:
In Phnom Penh: Ms. Christine Pickering, (+855 23 993 590/91,
Ext: 306/ cpickering@ohchr.org)
In Geneva: Ms. Olga Nakajo (+41 79 618 3429 / +81 1277 7831
/ onakajo@ohchr.org) or write to srcambodia@ohchr.org
For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts:
Xabier Celaya, Media Unit (+ 41 22 917 9383 /
xcelaya@ohchr.org)
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