The timeline below offers a visual representation of some of the key human rights violations and restrictions which have occurred in the Kingdom of Cambodia from 2013-2023, and follows our previous timeline covering 1993-2012 which can still be accessed here. The incidents recorded on the timeline from 2013-2023 represent human rights violations by the Royal Government of Cambodia as well as third parties, cover a wide range of issues including extrajudicial killings, convictions of human rights defenders, land grabs, forced evictions, restrictions of the rights to peaceful assembly, association and expression, torture, arrests, arbitrary detention and legislative and institutional developments relevant to human rights. The information is gathered from the Khmer and English media, CCHR’s own Fundamental Freedoms Monitoring Project, and from the commentary and analysis of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) working on these issues. Each entry is accompanied by a short description and provides links to media articles reporting on the event or to the work of CSOs active in the field. It should not be forgotten that the cases included in the timeline are those that have garnered the attention of the media or CSOs, and are as such particularly emblematic or high-profile. The timeline is therefore only representative of a small fraction of the actual number of human rights violations occurring in Cambodia.
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Preah Vihear
Land rights and forced evictions
Sum Moeun, community leader in a local land dispute, and his son, Moeun Mean, were arrested by Cambodian armed forces in Yeang commune. They were detained overnight and officials reported that Sum Moeun escaped the following morning. Sum Moeun's family claim that he was beaten by the soldiers when they arrested him. Between January 16 - 27, authorities arrested 15 villagers from the same commune. The villagers are in a land dispute with Metrey Pheap Kakse Usahakam Co. Ltd., which was granted a land concession by the government in 2012. The villagers are accused of "illegal clearing of state forest land." Four of the villagers, including Moeun Mean, are in pre-trial detention and are facing 5-10 years in prison.
HRW | Al Jazeera | VOA
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Phnom Penh
Restrictions on the freedoms of expression, assembly and association
Interior Minister Sar Kheng criticised politicians, media outlets, NGOs and other analysts for using the terms “Phnom Penh regime” and “Hun Sen regime” instead of the official title “Royal Government of the Kingdom of Cambodia,” accusing them of illegitimizing the government.
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Phnom Penh
Restrictions on the freedoms of expression, assembly and association
Leng Cholsa was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay 5 million riels for insulting the king in a June 2018 Facebook post in breach of the new "lèse-majesté law." This was the second conviction under this law.
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Phnom Penh
Legislative and institutional developments relevant to human rights
Article 45 of the Law on Political Parties was amended to give the prime minister the power to request the return of political rights to those banned by the courts before the term of the official ban is up. It states: “The individual who was banned from politics by the court can attain the return of their full political rights after the end of the ban duration as stated in the Supreme Court ruling, or that individual can get rehabilitation from the King through the request of the prime minister following a request from the minister of interior.”
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Phnom Penh
Legislative and institutional developments relevant to human rights
The National Assembly ratified two amendments to laws aimed at improving the representation and efficiency of sub-national administrations and local elections and as part of an ongoing effort to decentralise power. Article 18 on the Law on Administrative Management of the Capital, Provinces, Municipalities, Districts and Khans increases the number of provincial council members from 15 to 27, and municipal, district and commune council members from 11 to 21. The second amendment reduces the validity of voter lists from 35 to 15 days before local elections, reduces the deadline of publishing official voter lists from 30 to 15 days before local elections, reduces the length of local election campaigns from 15 to eight days, and restricts mass rallies to two occasions during local election campaigns.
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Phnom Penh
Restrictions on the freedoms of expression, assembly and association
Sen Sok district police in Phnom Penh broke up a memorial ceremony to mark the fifth anniversary of a crackdown on a protest by Yakjin garment workers on the Veng Sreng Boulevard in 2014, during which four protesters died and one dissappeared.
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Phnom Penh
Restrictions on the freedoms of expression, assembly and association
Kong Mas, former deputy head of electoral and legislative affairs for the now dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party ("CNRP"); was arrested on charges of insulting the government, inciting discrimination and attempting to overthrow the government, after he made criticisms of the government on Facebook.
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Phnom Penh
Legislative and institutional developments relevant to human rights
The Senate reportedly approved a proposed new law aiming to track the flow of money in Cambodia and from abroad, to combat tax avoidance. The law s individuals and private institutions that provide or receive money locally or from abroad to be registered. The law would also allow the ministries of Interior and Finance as well as the National Bank of Cambodia to monitor all of civil society and individual transactions, and could be used as a tool to control and limit CSO’s access to foreign funding.
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Phnom Penh
Physical and judicial threats against journalists and or human rights defenders
Rath Rott Mony, president of the Cambodian Construction Workers Trade Union Federation, was sent to court and charged with incitement to discriminate for his involvement in the production of a documentary about sex trafficking. The documentary, titled My Mother Sold Me, purports to tell the stories of impoverished families in Cambodia who sold the virginity of their daughters, who were later forced into prostitution. He had been arrested in Thailand a week earlier, where he had tried to get asylum after the authorities claimed the film’s interviewees had said they were paid. Rath Rott Mony is being held in pre-trial detention.
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Phnom Penh
Convictions of human rights defenders
Six union leaders (Chea Mony, Ath Thorn, Yang Sophorn, Pav Sina, Mam Nhim, and Rong Chhun) were found guilty of instigating intentional acts of violence with aggravating circumstances, intentionally causing damage with aggravating circumstances, threats to destroy property followed by an order, and blocking public traffic during protests against the result of the 2013 elections, back in 2013 and early 2014. They received two-and-a-half-year suspended prison sentences and were ordered to collectively pay 35,000,000 riels (approximately $8,600 USD) in compensation to two people injured in a 2014 clash. The trial was widely decried for failing to meet the minimum evidentiary standards and for being aimed at precluding the unionists from conducting further protests.
Reuter | PPP | Join Statement | PPP | Khmer Times
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Phnom Penh
Restrictions on the freedoms of expression, assembly and association
The authorities denied a request for people to peacefully march in a certain area of Phnom Penh on the occasion of human rights day, citing “public concerns”. Hundred of demonstrators gathered in Freedom Park in Phnom Penh, where they were allowed to demonstrate, to demand respect for human rights. Heavy police presence was noticed.
VOA | PPP | VOA | PPP | Khmer Times
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Phnom Penh
Restrictions on the freedoms of expression, assembly and association
The government rejected a request by the leader of the Khmer National Liberation Front (KNLF); Sam Serey, to be allowed to form a legitimate political party and return to Cambodia to participate in politics.
PPP | PPP | Khmer Times | RFA | Fresh News Asia | Vodhotnews
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Phnom Penh
Restrictions on the freedoms of expression, assembly and association
The Prime Minister reportedly stated that those who participated in the 2013 and 2014 protests against the CPP and who has gone abroad were “lucky to escape” as, if they had not, they “would already have had [their] funerals”.
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Phnom Penh
Restrictions on the freedoms of expression, assembly and association
Authorities banned journalists from communicating with a group of people who were forced to gather in the new Freedom Park to ask government officials to find a solution to their land conflict. Journalists were also forbidden from accessing the site. They worked for media outlets such as VOD, Khmer Times and The Phnom Penh Post.
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Preah Vihear
Land rights and forced evictions
Poek Sophorn and Lut Sang, two workers from the NGO Ponlok Khmer, were presented with a summons to appear for questioning at the Preah Vihear Provincial Court on 14 November 2018, over charges of being accomplices to arrest, detention and unlawful confinement in relation to 29 December 2014 events, in relation to a land dispute in Prame commune, Tbaeng Mean Chey district, Preah Vihear province. As the summons did not contain Poek Sophorn’s correct family name and personal details, he declined to accept the summons and asked the police to bring it back to the court for corrections. He has yet to receive a new summons. In addition, at least four community members from the Kui indigenous group received similar summons.
PPP | RFA | SEA-GLobe | Khmer Times | PPP | HRW | VOD | VOA | RFA
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Phnom Penh
Land rights and forced evictions
Three land activists were briefly detained by the Daun Penh district authority as they attempted to submit petitions at Prime Minister’s residence in Phnom Penh. The three were among more than 30 protesters from different communities in Phnom Penh and Koh Kong province who gathered at the prime minister’s house in the vicinity of the Independence Monument to seek his intervention in their respective, long-running land disputes.
Reuters | PPP | CCHR (Joint statement) | PPP | Khmer Times | Fresh News
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Phnom Penh
Land rights and forced evictions
Phnom Penh Municipal Court has issued summons for three Borei Keila and Boeng Kak land activists following a complaint filed by the owner of the Phanimex company, who accused them of extortion and property damage. The activists were identified by the court as Im Srey Touch, Sea Nareth and Phork Sophin. The trio protested in front of Phanimex owner Suy Sophan’s home in Tuol Kork district two to three times times per month over the past year and Ms Sophan has accused them of throwing objects at her home.
VOA | PPP | Khmer Times | Khmer Times
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Phnom Penh
Restrictions on the freedoms of expression, assembly and association
The head of the Prime Minister Hun Sen’s bodyguard unit was appointed to head a team tasked with stopping protests outside of the Prime Minister's mansion in central Phnom Penh. The decision comes amid a series of planned protests by land rights advocates and communities affected by land grabs.
PPP | Khmer Times | RFA
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Phnom Penh
Restrictions on the freedoms of expression, assembly and association
The Labour Ministry asked the Information and Culture ministries to ban a Khmer song, entitled “Pchum Ben Noek Srok”, which d lyrics about garment workers not being paid before the Pchum Ben holiday The ministry said the song describes garment workers who have not yet been paid before Pchum Ben and their anguish over not being able to go back to their hometowns for the holiday.
RFA | LICADHO | Fresh News | VOD | RFA
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Siem Reap
Restrictions on the freedoms of expression, assembly and association
The Siem Reap provincial court sentenced a 70-year-old barber to a year in prison under the lèse majesté law for a Facebook post insulting King Norodom Sihamoni. Court spokesman Yin Srang, told The Post yesterday that the accused is Ban Samphy, 70, a Ponleu Preah Phos villager, from Kampong Kdei commune, in the province’s Chikraeng district. Siem Reap provincial court arrested, Ban Samphy, a 70 year-old barber was arrested in Siem Reap on 19 May 2018 and charged with lese majesté (Art. 437 of the Cambodian Criminal Code). He had been held in pre-trial detention since. The barber had admitted that on May 13, 2018 at 6:40 p.m, he used Ban Samphy” account to distribute images and content that insulted the King from other Facebook account named Khmer Thatcher, as he was dissatisfied with the King.