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Civil Society Groups Condemn Violent Eviction of Borei Keila Residents
January 3, 2012 - HRTF, CYN, IDEA, BABC, CLEC, BKLW, ACRP, CCFC, FADP, PLCN and LICADHO strongly condemns today’s violent destruction of the homes of some 300 families living in Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila settlement. The destruction of these homes marks yet another sad turn for a development that was once promoted as a model alternative to the eviction and off-site relocation of the Phnom Penh’s urban poor.
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Civil Society Groups Condemn Violent Eviction of Borei Keila Residents
January 3, 2012 - HRTF, CYN, IDEA, BABC, CLEC, BKLW, ACRP, CCFC, FADP, PLCN and LICADHO strongly condemns today’s violent destruction of the homes of some 300 families living in Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila settlement. The destruction of these homes marks yet another sad turn for a development that was once promoted as a model alternative to the eviction and off-site relocation of the Phnom Penh’s urban poor.
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Judicial Intimidation of a Lawyer Representing an Opposition Party Activist
On 29 December 2011, Mr Choung Chou-Ngy was charged under Article 565 of the 2009 Criminal Code of the Kingdom of Cambodia (the “Penal Code”) – “Provision of Means for Escape”. This charge has been brought in response to the release of Mr Choung Chou-Ngy’s client, Mr Meas Peng, deputy chief of Banteay Dek commune in Kandal province’s Kien Svay district, from prison on 23 September 2011. The Cambodia Daily reported that the Kandal provincial court found that Mr Choung Chou-Ngy’s actions in helping his client to be released from prison were not in accordance with the laws of his profession, and that they in fact constituted helping his client to escape – a penal offense. The Kandal provincial court has since confirmed that Mr Choung Chou-Ngy has been charged.
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Judicial Intimidation of a Lawyer Representing an Opposition Party Activist
On 29 December 2011, Mr Choung Chou-Ngy was charged under Article 565 of the 2009 Criminal Code of the Kingdom of Cambodia (the “Penal Code”) – “Provision of Means for Escape”. This charge has been brought in response to the release of Mr Choung Chou-Ngy’s client, Mr Meas Peng, deputy chief of Banteay Dek commune in Kandal province’s Kien Svay district, from prison on 23 September 2011. The Cambodia Daily reported that the Kandal provincial court found that Mr Choung Chou-Ngy’s actions in helping his client to be released from prison were not in accordance with the laws of his profession, and that they in fact constituted helping his client to escape – a penal offense. The Kandal provincial court has since confirmed that Mr Choung Chou-Ngy has been charged.
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Civil Society Groups Condemn Violent Eviction of Borei Keila Residents
January 3, 2012 - HRTF, CYN, IDEA, BABC, CLEC, BKLW, ACRP, CCFC, FADP, PLCN and LICADHO strongly condemns today’s violent destruction of the homes of some 300 families living in Phnom Penh’s Borei Keila settlement. The destruction of these homes marks yet another sad turn for a development that was once promoted as a model alternative to the eviction and off-site relocation of the Phnom Penh’s urban poor.
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Democratic Governance-Programme Factsheet
Since the first national election in 1993, there have been gradual steps towards a more participative society in Cambodia: the emergence of the communes as a decision-making mechanism; significant empowerment of civil society in the area of gender, human rights and electoral reform; and some opening towards a multi-party culture. In the mid 1990s the government started a move from centralised governance towards a more decentralised set-up. Despite these progresses, concerns linger over impartiality of the electoral administration, equal access to media, and limited opportunities and avenues for participation.
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Freedom of the Press 2012
Press freedom in Cambodia remained under attack in 2011, as the authorities continued to develop and utilize legal mechanisms to silence independent media. For much of the year the government pushed for passage of the Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations (LANGO), but domestic and international objections forced officials to postpone the legislation in late December. The law would impose an opaque registration process and other requirements that were expected to fetter the work of community groups, including grassroots media outlets.
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Countries at the Crossroads
Cambodia emerged in 1998 from decades of war and internal upheaval. The period of warfare included a devastating bombing campaign by the United States between 1968 and 1973, followed by the takeover of the country by the infamous Khmer Rouge regime, whose oppressive strategies of collectivization caused the deaths of more than a million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979. The Khmer Rouge were ousted by an invasion of the Vietnamese army in 1979, but this was followed by another decade of intense civil war and international trade and aid sanctions, as the conflict  was transformed into a proxy war in which rivalries between the Soviet Union, China, and the West were fought out. The war was brought to a close over the course of the 1990s, following the withdrawal of the Vietnamese in 1989 and a United Nations peacekeeping operation between 1991 and 1993. Insurgency continued in border areas until 1996, when amnesty was offered for remaining Khmer Rouge fighters.
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Commune Council Election Report in 2012
To systematically select communes for observation, NICFEC cooperated with Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS) to draw a multistage random sample of 300 communes. The decision to use a statistical sample was to enable NICFEC to draw conclusions about the voter registration process in its entirety, within a margin of error. (See Appendix A for locations.)
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Freedom in the World
In June 2011, the UN-backed tribunal trying former leaders of the Khmer Rouge placed the remaining four defendants on trial, following the conviction of the first in 2010. But tribunal staff members resigned after the body proved unwilling to investigate other suspects still at large. Critics of the government continued to face legal harassment, while the leadership used a border dispute with Thailand to boost nationalism and consolidate the power of Prime Minister Hun Sen and his family. Separately, new incidents of land grabs by companies with links to the government, along with protests against these practices, continued in the Cambodian countryside.
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