Motoes

ព្យាយាម អប់រំ ជោគជ័យ
EFFORT EDUCATION SUCCESS

HUMAN RIGHT SITUATION IN CAMBODIA “PROGRESSES AND CHALLENGES”


HUMAN RIGHT SITUATION IN CAMBODIA
“PROGRESSES AND CHALLENGES”
By MEY Sopheakdei

I.       Introduction
1.  History Background
Human rights are absolutely crucial for human beings on this earth in which they want to live and have freedom and rights to protect themselves from any violence, but in the last few decades Cambodia had met a lot of abuse of human rights on its people through many regimes and over decades Cambodia has experienced several important regime changes and wars since 1970, when it was engulfed in the neighboring Vietnam War. The country fell under communist Khmer Rouge rule during the second half of the 1970s. Under this rule, the Cambodian people suffered from one of the world's worst and most extensive cases of mass human rights violations, resulting in the death of one and half million people. In 1979 the Khmer Rouge were ousted. This change plunged Cambodia into yet another war were cold war and civil war in the country and region.
The settlement of the latter war was reached in 1991 at an international conference in Paris, France. The State participants in that conference took serious note of the recent tragic history of Cambodia and committed themselves to promote and encourage respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cambodia, as embodied in the relevant international instruments to which they are party. They also recognized that this tragic recent history requires special measures to assure protection of human rights, and the non-return to the policies and practices of the past. Towards this end Cambodia committed itself, among other things, to ensure respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms and adhere to relevant international human rights instruments.
Among these measures were Cambodia’s adoption of a pluralistic liberal democratic system of government, and its undertaking to ensure respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms. For their part, the other State signatories also committed themselves to promoting and encouraging such respect and observance, and the UN was tasked with monitoring the situation of human rights in the war stricken country.
Following these accords, Cambodia has become party to all major international human rights norms and standards and incorporated them into its constitution. This constitution has established an independent judiciary for the protection of the rights and freedoms of all Cambodian citizens so that aggrieved individuals can have courts to adjudicate on and enforce their rights. Furthermore, the same constitution has assigned the King of Cambodia to be the guarantor of both the independence of the judiciary and the rights and freedoms of Cambodian citizens. Cambodia is therefore internationally bound by international human rights norms and standards by virtue of the Paris Peace Agreements and the constitution it adopted in 1993.
Under the peace accords Cambodia was placed under the administration of the United Nations, whose main tasks were to maintain peace and organize the election of a new government. Cambodia began in earnest to honor its obligations when, soon after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords, it acceded to all relevant international human rights instruments, and enshrined the guarantee and protection of these rights in a new constitution in 1993. This constitution turned Cambodia into a liberal democracy governed by the rule of law and respecting human rights, and enshrined the principle of separation of powers and an independent judiciary. The judiciary has the constitutional duty to protect the rights and freedoms of the Cambodian people.
Fifteen years on there has been progress in human rights and democracy, with the emergence of a civil society and political parties, the holding of regular elections, the abandonment of the state monopoly of the media, and the establishment of a market economy. Violence against members of the opposition, journalists and other government critics has decreased. But the mindset and practices of the communist days have not disappeared and adjusted to the change in regime.
At the beginning of 2006, the human rights situation in Cambodia appeared to have changed for the better compared with the previous year. However, some negative developments again clouded the situation in Cambodia that still meets a lot of challenges of human rights in the country due to the term of development in some parts of the whole country in which it also relates with the government millennium development goal that harm on citizens’ rights, which required more efforts and a better strategy to again bring about change for the better.
To clear understand on the human rights abuses and violations in Cambodia, we need to know the key issues which will be detailed below. In this topic, we will discuss many main points which relevant to the human rights abuses and violations in Cambodia and its effect to the Cambodians and the solutions with cases in the whole country.
2.  Problem Formulation
a.                  What are the progresses and challenges of human rights in Cambodia?
b.                 Why does Cambodia need human right for its people?
c.                  How are human rights implemented in Cambodia?
3.  Objective and Advantage
Human rights which are important to human beings, nowadays, become the critical thought among the other issues in Cambodia in which to study on human rights have many important following objectives:
a.        To analyze the human rights in Cambodia
b.       To seek out the violations from human right abuse through various factors.
c.        To explain the implementation of human rights in Cambodia
d.       To find out the solutions for reduction on human rights abuse in Cambodia.
To conduct the research on the topic “Human Rights in Cambodia: progress and challenges” perfectly, we need to choose the major elements including the abuses and violations of human rights in which the government and Cambodia society play the important role to protect  and promote the human rights. Moreover, we would like to seek the solution of human rights which causes to violations in Cambodia. Also, we would like to specify some government action which abuse and violate human rights such as land concession, Land and forestry issues, judicial reform, Impunity, Prisons, Elections, Housing land grabbing, and Trafficking in human beings so on.
    To seek the truth that what have happened around Cambodia, people scrim for help while the government or private sectors violate their rights with individual own property and so on which all of those things belong to them.
4.  Scope of the study
In order to complete this task, we need to spend some times as follow, for the first week we find out and surf the internet relevant to the documents through varies websites and including books, newspapers, and second week, we collect all data and start to set up the specific source to the topic, the third week, after the teacher correct the topic, we prepare documents and produce the assignment papers plan to submit to instructor as well as prepare for the presentation. Also, we start writing book. This research paper is studied only in Cambodia in the year from 2000 to 2010.

II.   Understanding of Human Rights
We think it is always useful to remind ourselves about what human rights are, especially when these notions are often clouded and distorted by misconceptions, ignorance, indifference or deliberate calculation to associate them with evil in order to discredit them.
Those who are deprived of the most fundamental human rights – human rights to life, to personal security, to physical and mental integrity, to health, education, housing, livelihood or employment - usually know the value of human rights in their lives. A girl deprived of education because she is a girl, or is too poor, understands the value of the right to education. A father who sees his child dying because he is too poor to afford him medical treatment understands the value of the right to health. A journalist who is imprisoned or murdered because of his writings understands the value of freedom of opinion and press. The farmer who is deprived of the land that he has cleared and cultivated for years, understand the value of the right to land. A factory worker struggling with others to improve wages and working conditions knows the value of the right to form a union and to peacefully demonstrate. A child who sees its home bulldozed in front of his own eyes, and becomes homeless as a result, understands the value of the rights to land, housing and security.
Human Rights reflect the profound aspiration of every human being to be treated with respect by others, and in particular by the State, and to realize one’s life to its full potential. In this respect, the right to development concerns every human being, if by development one understands the conditions by which we create the economic, social and cultural environment in which we can realize our life to its full potential. It is only when one can realize one’s life that one feels this sense of fulfillment that is called happiness. Human rights are about freedom, respect, cooperation and responsibility. They are the basic values of living together that makes individual life and collective life worth. This why these values have been valued and cherished by people the world over, and why they will continue to be cherished in the future because they are about the quality of our life.
On the other hand, after we know what human rights is we should find out who can help us to protect our rights in society in which we call “Human Rights Defenders.” Human rights Defenders come from all walks of life, from ordinary people defending their land, their houses, the graves of their ancestors, their community, their environment and their work, to students, journalists, trade union workers, doctors, teachers, lawyers, NGO activists.
They are all those who are acting, in their life, in their work, and in society to combat discrimination, exclusion, oppression and violence; to promote justice for victims, and accountability for perpetrators of violations; and transparency in government action.
In this regard, human rights defenders may also be Government officials, and should primarily be Government officials, for the primary responsibility to promote and protect human rights rests with Governments. A Minister or a Governor who authorizes a legal and peaceful demonstration to go is acting as a human rights defender. A doctor who actively promotes universal access to anti-retroviral treatment is acting as a human rights defender. A judge who applies the law in a fair manner acts as a human rights defender.
What it involves to act as a human rights defender is the consciousness of the value of rights, commitment and courage. Courage - - because human rights defenders are often putting at risk their own life, safety, and that of their families. This is why they must be protected. And it is primarily the responsibility of a Government which is serious about human rights, to enable and protect them, not only in words but most importantly, in deeds. The recognition of the role of human rights defenders and of the responsibility of Governments to respect, enable and protect them was translated in 1998 by all Member States of the United Nations into a declaration dedicated to their protection and commonly-known as the “human rights Defenders declaration”.
For all these reasons, this day is important to remind ourselves the role and work of human rights defenders in the building of our communities, in our country but also in the growing world community, and to pay a special tribute to them.
Before moving to a detailed discussion of human rights situation in Cambodia with progresses and challenges, it is important to understand the broad concept of human right or the nature of human right used here. We are used to thinking about human rights in the terms of individual human rights, that is, freedom from specific abuses or restrictions, especially by governments. “According to the U.S Bill of Rights prohibits the government from abridging individual Americans’ right to exercise their religion or free speech and from committing a variety of other abuses. These are generally called civil and political rights, those things that the government and perhaps others can not do to individuals or groups.”[1]
Beyond civil and political rights, there is another range of rights that are more collective in nature. These are generally called economic and social rights, they include those basic necessities that a society and its government are arguably obligated to provide as best they can in order to assure certain qualitative standards of life for everyone in the community. In these economic and social rights are the rights to receive the adequate education, nutrition, housing, sanitation, health care, and other basic necessary to live with dignity and security and to be a productive individual.
Whatever we think of nature of human rights, we always refer to the basic human rights in which they include:
1.       Survival needs” to avoid violence: This is the requisite to avoid and the right to be free from individual and collective violence.
2.       Well-being needs” to avoid misery: This is the right to adequate nutrition and water, to movement, sleep, sex, and other biological wants, to protection from diseases and from adverse climatological and environmental impacts.
3.       Identity needs” to avoid alienation: This is the right to self-expression, to realize our potential, to establish and maintain emotional bonds with others, to preserve cultural heritage and association, to contribute through work and other activity, and to receive information about and maintain contact with nature, global humanity, and other aspects of the biosphere.
4.       Freedom needs” to avoid repression: this is the right to receive and express opinions, to assemble with others, to have a say in common policy, and to choose in such wide-ranging maters as jobs, spouses, where to live, and lifestyle.
As we know nature of human rights are occurred by human beings themselves to exist those right for them to live with the elements of human rights that we mentioned above. It is absolutely important for us to call for our rights in a condition in which we are abused in the bad ways. Actually, we all have rights to live as a human being on this earth, but sometimes we do not know how to call out our rights in the society such as wild society. That means we are always abused against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights articles in which we are human beings established for serving of human harmonious and happy lives in the prosperous society.
We should be known our rights in order to create the plan in the way of protection of our live away from those activities in which they violate and abuse our freedom and rights as the human being in one society. Actually, we have to claim for our freedom and rights.
In short, Human Rights are things we provide for basic standards people need for a life in dignity as human being, the fundamental of freedom, justice and peace, a guarantee for a full development of the individual and the community, a rule for the government what to do and what not to do to respect the rights of their citizens and the proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the International Bill of Human Right. Moreover, those rights that are agreed upon as being under the protection of the international law can properly be said to be part of the body of human rights and the lists of the civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights are considered the definition of human rights.
III.        Human Rights Situation in Cambodia
So far we know about what human rights is in the understanding section, after world war II Cambodia was an isolate country in the region in which Cambodia met a lot of difficult in enhancing and preserving human right. Even though, the proclamation of Universal Declaration of Human Right was adopted on December 10 1948 with the lists of civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights, Cambodia was still not a democratic country because the first Cambodia constitution was adopted in 1947 and human right also is not the cultural, traditional idea of Cambodia ideology.
Cambodia had met a lot of human rights abuse and violation during the last few decades because Cambodia had changed six regimes Kingdom of Cambodia from 1947-1970, khmer Republic form 1970-1905, Democratic Kampuchea from 1975-1979, People Republic of Kampuchea form 1979-1989, State of Cambodia from 1989-1993, and Kingdom of Cambodia from 1993-present. So during each of the regimes Cambodia passed many war include world war, cold war, and civil war.
However, later on Cambodia had signed many agreements to protect and promote human right in the country after Cambodia joint the United Nations member. Recently, we see Cambodia causes violation and abuse of human rights in term of development and Cambodia citizens are suffer from these kinds of violation and abuse. We will seek the truth through the progress of human right and challenges of human rights in Cambodia in the following subpoints.
1.        The Progress of Human Rights
Having passed through many decades of wars and civil wars, Cambodia is considered young for democracy although it is the oldest country in South-East Asia and one of the oldest countries in the world. On 23 October 1991 was the date of adoption of Pairs Peace Agreements which brought Cambodia the process of peace. Then a new democratic constitution of Cambodia was adopted in 1993 and it states that Cambodia shall recognize and respect human rights as stipulated in the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of human Rights, the covenants and conventions related to human rights, women's and children's rights. The constitution also states that the country has united for ‘the restoration of Cambodia into an "Island of Peace" based on a multi-party liberal democratic regime guaranteeing human rights, abiding by law, and having high responsibility for the nation's future destiny of moving toward perpetual progress, development, prosperity, and glory. Based on what has been stipulated in its constitution, Cambodia has tried to improve the situation of human rights and many achievements have been brought about by the Government.
a.       Education Rights:
       The State shall protect the rights of the children as stipulated in the Convention on Children particularly the rights of education. The State shall built schools and support the educations until grade 12 of high school in the sense that all citizens can get free educations. The number of places for university level education is limited, that is, only excellent students and priority student from isolated area are allowed to study without paying and the other have to pay for their study on their own.
b.       Fair Trial Rights:                                                                                                                   The Cambodia’s constitution guarantees the independence of the judiciary and the right to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent, and impartial tribunal. There have been efforts to rebuild the legal framework since 1993 and to rebuild the judiciary.
The Khmer Rouge Court has been created with collaboration from the United Nations and some high ranking leaders in the genocide regime have been temporarily arrested and have been waiting for judgments. This is a standard example for Cambodia’s court ever done before. From this court, Cambodian citizens will start to feel confident that justice does exist and it is also a warning to all dictators. Recently the Institution of Anti-corruption has taken its approach to reform the judicial systems by bringing the corrupted high officials to the court. This will lead Cambodia to a real democratic state and will bring its citizens the justice.
c.        Land Rights:
The Cambodia Land Law of 2001 sets out in detail how Cambodians’ land rights should be protected. The Land Rights Unit works to discourage unlawful land-grabbing in Cambodia and to promote peaceful resolution where conflict does arise. The Ministry of Land Management has carried out the work to develop a comprehensive legal and policy framework relating to land rights and housing issues.
d.       Political Rights:
Cambodian citizens of either sex of at least 18 years old have the write to vote and those of at least 25 years old have the right to stand as candidates for the election. Provisions restricting the right to vote and to stand as candidate shall be defined in the electoral law. Cambodian citizens shall be given the right to participate actively in the political life and shall have full rights to choose any political party they like as well as to change from one party member to another one. The citizens shall have the rights to create associations and political parties. There is no restriction on the number of political parties and all political parties shall have equal rights to use state media for their campaign during the national election.
e.       Freedom Expression Rights:
The Cambodia’s constitution provides for freedom of expression for all Cambodians. Any suggestions from the people shall be given full consideration by the organs of State. The government has created a place for freedom expression which allows its citizens to express their peaceful demonstration in accordance with the law. The Trade Unions of Workers and civil societies have their full freedom to do strike or non-violent demonstration. The Ministry of Interior has set a good example in its effort to reform the correctional system, to establish a mechanism to prevent torture, and to develop and implement the law on peaceful demonstrations. More recently, the Ministry has been engaging in fruitful consultation with civil society organizations on the draft NGO law.
It is hoped that this consultation will be pursued to bring the draft law into conformity to international norms. The Cambodian Human Rights Committee is finalizing the Government’s report to the United Nations on its obligations under the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and is working to implement the recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review.
Cambodia has ratified more human rights treaties than many other States and has accepted all recommendations made during the Universal Periodic Review process in the Human Rights Council. It is a forward-looking country with a democratic Constitution. Obviously, it has different challenges to other States, given its turbulent history. Cambodia can aspire to be a model, aiming to live by better examples. The presence of the UN and its human rights mechanisms in the country is a good thing for Cambodia.
2.      The Challenges of Human Rights
      After we see the progresses of human rights in Cambodia in which it is the improvement of Cambodian citizens standard of living with the term of development and build free market and new infrastructures, but to answer these progresses we also see some disadvantages of promote human rights and protect human rights violation and abuses. Moreover, after the Cambodia government issued the economic land concession or other privatization, the human right violation also happened on right own property right and so on. When the citizens have problems with these issues, social well fair is also lack of quality. To understand more on the challenges of human rights in Cambodia we will focus on some factors or sector to examine these issues
a.        Judicial System
The court system consists of the Supreme Court, an appellate Court, 19 provincial courts, 2 municipal courts, and a military court. Three provinces have no courts; cases from these provinces are heard by the neighboring provincial courts. The twelve-judge Appeal Court, located in Phnom Penh, hears all cases appealed from the courts of first instance. Three-judge panels conduct complete re-trials on questions of fact and law and may conduct additional investigations. The Supreme Court is composed of a President, a Vice- President and several judges. A five-judge panel hears questions of law for cases appealed for the first time from the Appeal Court and a nine-judge panel hears questions of fact and law in the case of a second appeal, where the Appeals Court did not follow the cassation judgment of the Supreme Court. The Court also hears general revision complaints against final and binding verdicts, on the basis that new evidence has emerged which establishes the innocence of the convicted person and was not available at the time of the trial. Judicial appointments are made by the Supreme Council of Magistracy, which is also responsible for discipline within the profession. Training of court professionals is undertaken by a new Royal Academy for the Legal Profession, which contains a School for Judges and a School for Clerks. There is a professional Cambodian Bar Association but no association of judges.
The 1993 Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia states in article 128 that the judiciary shall be an independent power that shall guarantee and uphold impartiality and protect the rights and freedoms of the citizens. Article 129 states that justice is exercised in the name of the citizens of Cambodia in accordance with the procedures and laws in force.
Only judges have the right to adjudicate and shall exercise their duties wholeheartedly and conscientiously with due respect for the law. Article 130 states that judicial power shall not be granted to the executive or legislative branches and article 131 that criminal prosecutions are the sole preserve of the Department of Public Prosecutions. Article 132 of the Constitution gives the King the role of guarantor of the independence of the judiciary and mandates the Supreme Council of Magistracy to assist him in this task.
The Constitution requires that the statuses of judges and prosecutors be defined in separate laws. This legislation has still not been adopted. The draft law is currently stalled for a number of reasons. One of them seems to be the disagreement between the Supreme Council of Magistracy and the Ministry of Justice about the Ministry’s role in controlling prosecutors: the Ministry proposes that it should control the Department of Public Prosecutions in line with practice in France; the Supreme Council claims that since prosecutors are judges and judges are independent under the Constitution, they should come under the control of the Supreme Council. One consequence of the failure to adopt this law is that the three members of the Supreme Council who should be elected by judges from amongst their peers have been appointed by the Ministry of Justice since the Supreme Council was created. The Constitution states that elections cannot take place until the Law on the Status of Judges has been promulgated.
It is perhaps indicative of the challenges facing Cambodia that, seventeen years after the Constitution was promulgated, the organic law organizing the court system is still not in place. It should be noted here that the law has been also been delayed in part over disagreements on how to establish a commercial court or commercial chambers required under the terms of Cambodia’s entry into the World Trade Organization.
However, there are many words from Cambodia citizens say that the rich is the winner and the poor is the loser, so all victims never want to fine justice through Cambodia courts.  Although the Constitution of Cambodia provides for the separation of powers between the three main organs of the State, in practice the distinction between these organs is blurred and the executive branch dominates the judiciary whether by providing resources to the judiciary or in making appointments to various judicial positions. This remains a key challenge for the country in implementing the rule of law and in promoting and protecting people’s rights. The Special Rapporteur is aware of the impact of the tragic past on the judiciary and notes that the efforts made in reconstructing it have been commendable. However, the judiciary still has a long way to go to assert and establish its independence, and the executive and the legislative branches have to adopt a number of measures to enable it to do so. On a number of occasions and especially in high-profile political cases, the judiciary seems to have allowed itself to be used or manipulated for political or purely private purposes.
The courts are not trusted by the people to provide impartial justice. As a consequence, citizens seek alternative methods of remedy which tend to undermine further the rule of law. In land disputes, communities tend to bypass the court system, petitioning top leaders to intervene on their behalf, reinforcing the already overwhelming executive authority. Prior to the war, Norodom Sihanouk was the focus of these petitions. Nowadays, groups of villagers are almost permanently encamped outside the gates of the Prime Minister’s residences in Kandal province and in Phnom Penh. Interventions by the Prime Minister are frequent in response to direct petitions by private citizens. The quality of legal argumentation in the courtroom is disappointing and often nonexistent. Until recent reforms made it a requirement for reasoned arguments to be included in judgments, judges rarely supported their verdicts with a sound analysis of the law. The line of logic running through some legal arguments is often difficult to follow. Even in high-profile cases such as those concerning Ms. Mu Sochua, a member of parliament and leading member of the main opposition party, the courts at all levels failed to provide convincing legal reasoning for their judgments.
b.        Freedom of Expression
The Cambodia authorities have not lifted its ban on peaceful public demonstrations although such an event is one form of exercising the right to freedom of expression. This right is among all the human rights that Cambodia has undertaken to observe and respect as part of its obligation under the Paris Peace Agreement of 1991. All these human rights are binding on Cambodia as its constitution of 1993 on Chapter III of the constitution about rights and obligation of Cambodian citizens.
The police have enforced this ban with the use of force. In December 2007, a riot police force armed with shields and batons chased and assaulted a group of Buddhist monks who went to hand a petition to Vietnamese embassy in Phnom Penh demanding the release of their fellow monk of the same indigenous origin from prison.
Moreover, the police and local authorities have seemed to be more tolerant towards the holding of public forums held in different provinces and have not used force when enforcing their ban. Every demonstration is banned because of the claim of social security from the police.
c.        Land Grabbing
In recent years, land grabbing and land disputes have been on the rise and have become more violent across the country. Invariably, the rich and the powerful have connived to forcibly evict the poor from their land. According to Human Rights Watch, as of August 2006, in Phnom Penh 1000 families had been forcibly evicted during the year and 1600 more were facing the same forced evictions and resettlement. In ten provinces alone, based on publicly known cases, another 1231 families were known to be also facing forced evictions. As mentioned earlier, invariably there were no eviction judgments from courts, or if there were, these judgments had been secured through the political pressure and/or financial influence on the courts. The authorities simply issued eviction orders and sent armed police forces to execute them.
The forced evictions in question contained numerous incidents of inhuman treatment. In early May 2006, the Cambodian government began to evict over 1000 families from a village on a bank of the Bassac River, near the compound of the Russian Embassy in Phnom Penh. Workers hired from outside-demolished houses in the area, beginning with rented houses. A strong police force with riot shields and electric batons protected this demolition work and subdued resistance from the residents. This eviction immediately made many poor tenants homeless. These homeless people had to sleep in the open during the night. Local officials pressurized them to leave and denied humanitarian agencies access to distribute tents. They even smashed cooking pots and pans. Most of the evictees were poor people. This village was cleared to hand the land over to Sour Srun Enterprises Co. Ltd., reportedly for the construction of a shopping mall.
Moreover, in the provinces, evictions were no less brutal. Below are only a few of the many cases of such evictions. There has been persistent criticism of the Cambodian government's land concession policy, notably concerning its lack of transparency and the development and beautification of Phnom Penh at the expenses of the livelihood of people. There has also been criticism of its violation of the right to housing and shelter of the victims of land grabbing, and of the use of force during evictions, as well as the government's refusal to give adequate compensation to the victims in question. The dumping of Phnom Penh evictees in resettlement areas that are far away from their work and which lack social infrastructure, such as schools, health centres and public utilities, have also been harshly criticised. To many people, all the forced evictions of Phnom Penh people cited above are reminiscent of the forced evacuation of Phnom Pen in April 1975, when the Khmer Rouge forced all townsfolk at gun point to leave the city and to live in hovels in the countryside.
Therefore, land grabbing has remained a hot issue, when the rich and powerful, though illicit means acquire land belonging to weaker and poorer people. It has affected and continues to affect the livelihood of hundred of thousands of people in urban and rural alike, the ethnic majority and monitories alike, when these people have been evicted or are likely to be evicted, most often by force, from their homes and lands without jus compensation as the country’s constitution has prescribed. Amnesty international has estimated in its report published in February 2008, that at least 150,000 Cambodians across the country are known to live at risk of being evicted in the wake of development projects, land disputes and land grabbing.


3.     Solution
According to reality in Cambodia, human rights are still the issue for the government and its own society to focus on. However, it was declaredas a democratic country but in fact there are still some lacking facilitates help to protect the real human rights. As far as we go through the problems of human rights abuse, we can imagine of the solutions that are expected to be taken action.

a.       Education rights
The standard of the school as well as the rights for children to go to school is still missing and really challenging with so many unfair aspects. As we can see that there are some scholarship not only within the country but also abroad, have been sold to some rich people that cause the poor people don’t have chance to challenge with their real ability. This is the corruptions that violate the human right of property discrimination.
Government should strengthen the system of scholarship perceiving to the students who have real ability not money to buy the scholarship for the first year and study costless the year after. Moreover, government should encourage to both genders of student to study what they like, no matter what the subject is belong to girl or boy. It is a good way to keep people stay closer to their rights. When there is a difficulties in choosing the subjects, government should recommend some public service to help them select what their talent can link the best to their future career. This is a good way to build the human resource as well as human’s confidence which effected to their human rights.
b.       Freedom of expression
It is very important for some truth to be revealed in public. However, some speech that is not effect to one another should be made. For example, journalist should not be arrested in some case of expression the truth that involved in political but not violating to one’s another personality or privacy. Government should ensure their right for the public to know what happen around the country.
On the other hand, opposite party’s voice is really affected to the political decision. Because if one society always has a positive voice, it will never be stable because of the power will be in only one place and the whole society will seem to be in the communist side. That is why there needs the voice of opposite party to make sure that all the political solution is right and efficiency. 
c.        Land dispute
In developing country, normally there are a lot of land problems in the rural area or in the economic area. Some casesare really serious because of the wrong decision from government to their people. People need a fair compensation for their lost property that is own by them for a long time ago, but it useless and will be disappear in just only few hours of agreement between government and another invested party.
Therefore, it is a big picture of violation to the group of people and their rights. They have their own right to ask for their legal property that was approved and recognizedby the government officer. For example, the case in Beung Kok is really serious and need to study the effective and the problem of the violation to the citizens. They do not ask for their property like house or land back but just a good and fair compensation from government and the invested company party, because they have all the documentaries which approved by the government officer that their land is belong to them.
However, there are some necessary Advisory services and technical assistance for Cambodia from Human Rights Council as the following:
1.       Expresses its concern about some areas of human rights practices in Cambodia and urges the Government of Cambodia
(a) To continue to strengthen its efforts to establish the rule of law, including through the adoption and implementation of essential laws and codes for establishing a democratic society, and its efforts at judicial reform, especially to ensure the independence, impartiality, transparency and effectiveness of the judicial system as a whole;
(b) To enhance its efforts to combat corruption, particularly by early enactment of an anti-corruption law and its implementation;
(c) To continue to address, as a matter of priority, inter alia, the problem of impunity, and to enhance its efforts to investigate urgently and to prosecute, in accordance with due process of law and international human rights standards, all those who have perpetrated serious crimes, including violations of human rights;
(d) To enhance its efforts to resolve equitably and expeditiously land ownership issues in a fair and open manner in accordance with the 2001 Land Law, by strengthening the capacity and effectiveness of relevant institutions such as the National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution and Cadastral Committees at the national, provincial and district levels;                         (e) To continue to create an environment conducive to the conduct of legitimate political activity and to support the role of non-governmental organizations in order to solidify democratic development in Cambodia;
(f) To continue its efforts to improve human rights, especially those of women and children, and to make additional efforts, in concert with the international community, to combat key problems such as human trafficking, issues related to poverty, sexual violence, domestic violence and sexual exploitation of women and children;
(g) To take all steps to meet its obligations under international human rights instruments and to further strengthen its cooperation with United Nations agencies, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, including through enhanced dialogues and development of joint activities;
(h) To continue to promote the rights and dignity of all Cambodians by providing political, economic and social freedom through the continuous and enhanced implementation of its rectangular strategy and various reform programs;
2.       Invites the Secretary-General, agencies of the United Nations system present in Cambodia and the international community
(a) Drafting various laws necessary for protecting and promoting human rights;
(b) Capacity-building to strengthen legal institutions, including by improving the quality of judges, prosecutors, lawyers and court staff;
(c) Capacity-building to strengthen national institutions for criminal investigation and law enforcement as well as providing equipment necessary for these ends;
(d) Assisting assessment of progress in human rights issues;
In order to precede the result, first we need to knowthose problems not only the government and other organizations but also those citizensthat need to make solution and taken action. The citizens,who should recognized their ownrights and human rights law should study more about how that law can protect, prevent and ensure of the human rights abuse. This means that you can judgethe people or business party who try to cheat on the law and violate on your rights.
However, human rights in Cambodia is still challenging which means that some case the problems that can be defined but cannot be found the right decision to that problems. Because of the law enforcement is still weak and the government still lack some ability to help its own citizens, therefore, some problem seem to take longer time to solve which still consider as the main issue that violate to human rights.
IV.  Conclusion and recommendation
Through this research paper, we can see that human rights in Cambodia needed to improve more on all sectors. It has nevertheless shown that Cambodia's performance regarding human rights recent years was not any nearer the international norms and standards it had adhered to as its obligation under the Paris Peace Accords of 1991, 15 years after these accords were reached. Cambodia's rule of law institutions, especially the judiciary, remained underdeveloped and under executive control. This control became stronger when the ruling party, the CPP, to which almost all judges and prosecutors belong, became the overwhelming dominant party in the country in 2006. The country has lost all checks and balances. These institutions remain instruments of repression in the hands of the government and its powerful prime minister, instead of striving to become protectors of the rights and freedoms of the Cambodian people, as provided for in the country's constitution. The judiciary failed to gain any public trust and people continued to look elsewhere for justice, including through protests, although they have to brave brutal crackdowns by the police force in such cases.
The abuses that are highlighted in this report derived mainly from malfunctions within these institutions. The main task required in order to ensure the observance of and respect for human rights therefore remains the establishment of an independent, competent and impartial judiciary, as provided for in the Paris Peace Accords, the international human rights instruments Cambodia has adhered to, and the country's constitution. This task lies with Cambodia one the one hand, and State-signatories to those accords, UN agencies and international aid agencies on the other. In this regard, the ratification of the First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR and the Optional Protocol to CAT that the Cambodian government as already signed, could be a catalyst to speed up this process. Victims of violations could then resort to the respective committees of these international legal instruments in order to seek redress, thereby opening up much-needed channels for these committees to bring about changes in these institutions.
The human rights situation described above in not comprehensive, but it shows no strong indications of any real precondition under which human rights can flourish in the future. The rule of law that is essential for the protection of human rights, as recognized by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is simply not there when Cambodia is essentially rule by degree.
The concept of equality before the law and equal protection by the law has not taken in Cambodia yet. Courts have yet to gain independence and be imbibed with impartiality and have yet to discharge their constitutional duty to protect human rights. They have yet to assert themselves as state institutions and not serve a tool for the rich and powerful to promote and protect their interests at the expense of the opposition to the government, and the poor and weak.
Cambodia authorities, the Cambodia Bar Association, the Cambodia civil society, eh field Office of the High Commissioner for human rights, the Special Rapporteur on human rights in Cambodia, and donor countries should make more efforts and concentrate these efforts primarily on establishing the rule of law and building strong functional institution for it in Cambodia.
The issue of economic land concession is popular these days for Cambodia human rights abuse in which private companies used government police to against, force, and remove people from their without respect to right to own property. After we discuss on some progresses and challenges of human rights in Cambodia we also can give some recommendation to this topic both government and society.
The Cambodian government should abandon the rule by degree and embrace the rule of law, buy resorting to the due process of law, to eradicate land grabbing. It should protect the property right of the Cambodia people and enact a law on confiscations of land for the purpose of public interests with an independent and impartial committee for fair and just compensation for people affected by such confiscation.
The Cambodian government should ensure that the cadastral commissions for the adjudication of conflicts related to unregistered land have functional independence and adequate resources including expertise to perform their respective duty. It should ensure that, before making any land concession, people likely to be affected are consulting, and fair and just compensation are offered to them. Furthermore, adequate land should be made available to the poor and the landless for their housing and cultivation.
The freedoms of expression are fundamental rights, and Cambodian authorities should consider them so and give them priority over inconveniences the exercise of them might cause. The police should consider serving and protecting people as their core value, and instead of banning for instance peaceful demonstrations and protests, they should secure law and order die demonstrators or protesters to exercise their right.

V.    References:
1.        The Declaration of Human rights in the Cambodia Constitution, Published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Cambodia County Office, July 2008
2.         Paris Principles on National Human Rights Institution, Published by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Cambodia Country Office, November 2006
3.         Universal Declaration of Human Rights, This publication is produced by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and the fifteenth anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia in 1993.
4.        The Politics of Human Rights in East Asia, by Kenneth Christie and Denny Roy, First published 2001 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 22883 Quicksilver Drive, Sterling, VA 20166–2012, USA.
5.        The state of human rights in eleven Asian nations in 2007 – Cambodia ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
6.        RESTRICTIONS ON THE FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY IN CAMBODIA A LICADHO Briefing paper, December 2005.


[1] International Politics on the World Stage, by John T. Rourke and Mark A. Boyer, PP368

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