LIBRARY

31 July 2020

We, the undersigned youths, civil society groups and grassroots communities, are very concerned by the Royal Government of Cambodia granting Koh Kong S.E.Z Col, Ltd, a company publicly known as being owned by Ly Yong Phat – a powerful tycoon widely known for his involvement in human rights abuses, land rights violations and the destruction of natural resources – the license to develop Koh Kong Krao island in Koh Kong province. The authorization given to this company will potentially be a serious threat to natural resources on the island and biodiversity in the sea, including deforestation, wildlife extinction, illegal buildings constructed on the beach, water pollution in the sea, loss natural beauty of the island and loss the benefit for Cambodian people, etc.

For example, in the case on Koh Rong Samloem island, there is illegal construction on the beach land and polluted water draining into the sea. Another case is Songsaa island; after the development, most Cambodian people cannot afford to stay on the island, because the price of accommodation is too expensive. Therefore, we are very concerned about the planned development of the island by the company, and call for the government to remove the development license for Koh Kong Krao island from the company and to take all effective measures to preserve the national resources and biodiversity in the sea surrounding the island.

27 July 2020

More than one million people across Phnom Penh are facing the risk of increased flooding and over one thousand more families are at risk of evictions, loss of income and food insecurity as the ING City project and other unsustainable developments destroy the Tompoun/Cheung Ek wetlands in the capital’s south.

The research report, Smoke on the Water: A human rights and social impact assessment of the destruction of the Tompoun/Cheung Ek wetlands, has found that millions of Cambodians will likely be affected by the destruction of the Tompoun/Cheung Ek wetlands by ING Holdings and other private corporations including Chip Mong, AEON Mall, Orkide Villa, and Borey Peng Huoth. Human rights and environmental groups surveyed 469 families living in or using the wetlands area and its rivers. The resulting report sheds light on the potentially devastating impacts of destroying 1,500 hectares of wetlands that sustain local communities and play a vital role in Phnom Penh’s waste management and flood prevention.

23 July 2020

Amnesty International and the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) call on the Royal Government of Cambodia to follow through with its commitment to address prison overcrowding by releasing prisoners accused of non-violent crimes, including those at heightened risk of COVID-19 and people held for minor offenses, as well as women incarcerated with their children and detainees who are under 18.

In May, Cambodia’s new Minister of Justice Koeut Rith announced a range of reforms to Cambodia’s justice system. These promised reforms were intended to address the severe backlog of pending cases in Cambodia’s courts and the extreme overcrowding in its prisons through the expansion of alternatives to incarceration, including bail and suspended sentences, in addition to early and conditional release for current prisoners.

16 July 2020

We read your open letter addressed to our four civil society groups and published on the CMA Facebook page on the night of July 15th.

We respectfully decline your request to change any of the three reports regarding human rights abuses in Cambodia’s microfinance and microloan sector. The information and individual stories in these reports remains accurate. We will continue to protect the privacy of people who have chosen to share their stories with us on condition of anonymity. We encourage you, and all interested parties, to read the reports in full to better understand their purpose, methodology, and findings.

10 July 2020

Four years after political analyst Kem Ley was shot dead while drinking his morning coffee, the Star Mart at Caltex Bokor service station stood empty behind sealed shutters. But despite the authorities’ attempts to restrict all public commemoration of the popular commentator’s murder, former friends, colleagues and human rights defenders gathered in Phnom Penh and Takeo in the days leading up to the anniversary to pay tribute to his memory.

On Wednesday July 8, a group of monks and young activists were physically barred from holding a peaceful prayer ceremony at the site of Kem Ley’s shooting by a human chain of security forces. One young man wearing a t-shirt showing Kem Ley’s face was immediately arrested and made to sign a contract by district police.

The next day, a group of youth activists were blocked from travelling to Kem Ley’s family home in Takeo by heavily armed security forces. And today, scores of military police and security forces were deployed to block a convoy of monks, activists and supporters of the slain commentator from peacefully processing along the same route. Undaunted, they continued their journey on foot.

Rights groups continue to call on Cambodian authorities to create an independent Commission of Inquiry to fully investigate Kem Ley’s murder, and urge authorities to cease all intimidation and harassment of people peacefully commemorating his death.

9 July 2020

Today, in advance of the fourth anniversary of the killing of prominent political commentator and human rights defender Kem Ley, we, the 30 undersigned organizations, call on the Cambodian authorities to create an independent Commission of Inquiry to conduct an effective and impartial investigation that is long overdue into Kem Ley’s death. We further urge Cambodian authorities to cease intimidation and harassment of persons peacefully commemorating his passing.

On July 10, 2016, Kem Ley was shot and killed while having his morning coffee at a petrol station in central Phnom Penh. Without conducting a prompt, thorough, and independent investigation, the authorities arrested Oeuth Ang, who identified himself as “Chuob Samlab” (meaning “Meet to Kill” in Khmer) and “confessed” to the killing. Following a half-day trial on March 23, 2017, which was widely criticized for failure to meet international fair trial standards, the court found Oeuth Ang guilty of murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment. On May 24, 2019, the Supreme Court upheld his sentence.

8 July 2020

A youth activist has been arrested for trying to peacefully commemorate the four-year anniversary of Kem Ley’s murder as a group of monks and activists were physically barred by a mix of district police and paramilitary security forces from praying at the site of the popular analyst’s shooting.

The activist, who was wearing a t-shirt with Kem Ley’s face on it, was seized by police as soon as he arrived at the planned memorial. He was later released after signing a contract with local authorities.

Mixed security forces formed a human chain to block participants from holding a prayer ceremony at Phnom Penh’s Caltex Bokor service station, where the political commentator was shot dead while drinking his morning coffee on 10 July 2016.

30 June 2020

Tens of thousands of garment workers in Cambodia will struggle to repay microfinance debts during work stoppages and factory suspensions caused by COVID-19, creating a mounting human rights crisis as they struggle to feed their families and hold onto their land under immense pressure from microfinance institutions (MFIs). Without immediate debt relief, many of these workers will resort to selling their land or their homes, eating less food or taking out even more loans to repay their debts.

In Worked to Debt, a joint briefing paper between the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU), the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL) and the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO), researchers surveyed more than 150 workers – most of them women – from three factories in Phnom Penh and Kampong Chhnang to investigate how workers were coping with their debts as hundreds of factories suspended operations as a result of the global pandemic.

4 June 2020

A group of young environmental activists who were harassed by authorities for more than a day have been released from police questioning this afternoon. The activists were stopped by police while cycling from Koh Kong province to Phnom Penh as part of their “Save Koh Kong Krao Island” campaign in a clear attempt to intimidate the young Cambodians.

The group, which included members of environmental movement Mother Nature, were repeatedly accused by local authorities of being part of the dissolved opposition party. Police are refusing to return the activists’ bicycles until after World Environment Day on June 5, effectively cutting short their peaceful campaign to the nation’s capital.

Provincial police seized the young Cambodians’ bicycles yesterday to prevent the group from cycling to Phnom Penh to submit a petition calling for Cambodia’s largest island to be designated as a protected national park. When the group tried to continue to the capital on foot, they were stopped in the middle of the night by government officials, who pressured them to stop their journey and hand over their petition directly.

18 May 2020

We, the undersigned civil society groups, urgently call on the government to drop all charges against imprisoned journalists Sok Oudom and Sovann Rithy and to halt all harassment of other journalists in Cambodia facing prosecution for their critical reporting. We also urge the government to immediately restore the broadcasting licenses of all media outlets revoked before and during this latest assault on press freedom.

Police arrested local radio station owner Sok Oudom in Kampong Chhnang province on Wednesday on charges of “incitement to commit a felony”. Oudom regularly reported on longstanding land disputes between local farming communities and powerful district officials. The day before Oudom’s arrest, the Ministry of Information revoked the media license of his Rithysen Radio Station and its website, despite the fact that Oudom had yet to be charged with any crime. He remains in pre-trial detention.

10 May 2020

Six members of Cambodian youth group Khmer Thavrak including human rights activist Hun Vannak were arrested in Battambang last night while returning from a peaceful protest calling on banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to suspend loan repayments amid the economic crisis caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Five monks who joined the protest were also threatened with expulsion from their pagodas unless they thumb-printed an agreement pledging to stop their activism on behalf of Cambodian borrowers.

5 May 2020

“The benefits of MFIs are short, but the fear is long.”

Throughout Cambodia’s northwest, widespread microfinance debt is pushing families from their homes to find work across the Thai border. In this briefing paper “Driven Out: A study on MFIs and Cross-Border Migration”, LICADHO focuses on a single village in Banteay Meanchey province to dig deeper into the link between microfinance debt and migration in Cambodia’s borderlands. Through interviews conducted with remaining family members from 30 households, LICADHO’s researchers found that over-indebtedness to microfinance institutions (MFIs) was the primary motivating factor for migration in the village.

“Far too many families have had to leave their homes and their country to repay microfinance institutions,” said LICADHO director Naly Pilorge. “Now, with tens of thousands of former migrant workers unable to work in Thailand due to COVID-19, the government and MFIs must help these borrowers by suspending repayments and returning land titles.”

5 May 2020

For many families in Cambodia’s northwest, migrant work is the only way they can manage their rising microfinance debts. In this video, men and women from the Thai border share their fears of what will happen when they can no longer pay back their loans.

4 May 2020

We the undersigned groups decry the harassment of community representatives from across Cambodia on Tuesday, April 28. These community representatives were arbitrarily detained for seven hours and interrogated while trying to submit a petition asking for additional government assistance to vulnerable communities during the Covid-19 crisis.

More than 30 community representatives from across Cambodia gathered in Phnom Penh to submit the petition, which has life-saving requests such as asking the government to distribute medical supplies to vulnerable communities; suspend debts from microfinance institutions (MFIs) and private money lenders; and provide direct economic assistance, including suspending rental fees for poor and informal workers and providing stay-at-home payments.

27 April 2020

The suffering of millions of Cambodians who are facing economic hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic is being amplified by the country’s ongoing over-indebtedness crisis, stemming from more than $10 billion in loans from aggressive microfinance institutions (MFIs). More than two and a half million Cambodians currently hold microloans, with an average loan of more than $3,800 – the largest amount in the world. This puts millions of Cambodians’ livelihoods, health and land tenure security at risk.

The government must ensure that MFIs immediately suspend all loan repayments as well as interest accrual on loans for at least three months and return the millions of land titles currently held as collateral by MFIs to their owners. These actions are necessary to ensure that people are able to survive this crisis without risking their health or homes, and are able to avoid further risky loans that could lead to bonded labour, human trafficking and other human rights abuses.

16 March 2020

Four environmental activists, including Goldman Environmental Prize-winner Ouch Leng, have been released by the Kratie provincial prosecutor after the four men were beaten on Friday by guards of Think Biotech Co, Ltd, a joint Taiwanese-Khmer company repeatedly accused of illegal logging, before being handed over to local authorities for more than two days of questioning. Throughout their detention, dozens of local community members, activists and monks peacefully gathered in front of the provincial court to call for their freedom.

Leng was arrested alongside Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) activist Khem Sokhy and Srey Thei as well as forestry activist Man Mat while investigating ongoing reports of illegal logging inside the protected Prey Lang forest. Think Biotech, which has been granted a 34,000-hectare concession, has been repeatedly accused by local communities of illegally harvesting timber within the protected forest as well as resin trees owned by local villagers.

Although none of the activists have been charged, all four remain under investigation as suspects, leaving them vulnerable to being summonsed by the police at any time.

8 March 2020

From March 5 to March 8, hundreds of people from dozens of different communities came together to celebrate International Women’s Day across Cambodia. In Kampong Speu province, convoys of tractors trekked across the red earth to public forums where women shared stories of finding strength amidst discrimination and struggle. In Koh Kong province, more than 300 people marched in protest of enduring inequality between men and women. And in the capital of Phnom Penh, more than 200 workers and activists gathered in Freedom Park to take part in performances exposing the harassment that many women continue to face every day in their workplaces. In Svay Rieng, Banteay Meanchey, Kampong Chhnang, Thbong Khmum, Battambang, Preah Sihanouk, Siem Reap and Pursat provinces, men, women and children joined arms to demand equal rights for women.

For many of the women involved in demonstrations across Cambodia, land rights continued to play a central role in their struggle. Grassroots communities gathered to discuss the ongoing harassment and intimidation facing women who stand up to protect the land they depend on to survive, as well as ways to strengthen and support women activists fighting for their livelihoods.

But few of these celebrations were free from outside pressure. In Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park, municipal authorities arbitrarily restricted the number of participants to 200 people crowded beneath a single tent. Most gatherings across the country took place under the watching gaze of security forces, and communities in Pursat and Svay Rieng provinces reported being threatened by local security in the days leading up to International Women’s Day. As has become all too common, much of the harassment levelled against local communities by authorities was carried out in the name of the much-condemned Law on Associations and NGOs (LANGO), which gives officials arbitrary power to suppress grassroots organising and events. Despite these challenges, though, women across Cambodia continued to raise their voices against ongoing discrimination and abuse.

8 March 2020

Last year, to mark the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence campaign, LICADHO shared videos highlighting the experiences of pregnant women and mothers incarcerated with their children in Cambodian prisons. Months later, little progress has been made to improve the lives of these women and children. January saw the tragic death of a five-month old baby incarcerated with her mother in Correctional Centre 2 prison.

To mark International Women’s Day this 8 March, LICADHO is sharing the full stories of three women and their children who endured the harsh realities of Cambodia’s prisons – severe overcrowding, inadequate food and access to health care, scarce contact with their families, and limited time and space for children to play.

Many incarcerated pregnant women and women with children are entitled to release on bail, yet remain in pre-trial detention without access to a lawyer. As of January 2020, 43 pregnant women and 103 children living with their mothers remained behind bars.

25 February 2020

We, the undersigned, are outraged and appalled at the restrictions placed on hundreds of community members, monks and environmental activists who were prevented by authorities from entering parts of Prey Lang protected area over the weekend. The Ministry of Environment’s use of masked armed rangers to prevent members of the Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) from conducting an annual tree-blessing ceremony in the forest is an indefensible restriction on the community’s freedom of movement and harms conservation efforts in the forest.

The PLCN has proved itself to be the most effective and courageous advocate and monitor of the Prey Lang forest over the past 20 years. The group is made up of community members whose lives and livelihoods are intertwined with the forest, and they require unhindered access to the area in order to protect it. Despite the community group taking the courteous step of informing authorities of the intent to hold an annual ceremony inside the forest, officials from the Ministry of Environment blocked members from entering the forest without providing proper legal justification.

21 February 2020

Hundreds of community members, environmental activists, monks and civil society members were stopped by authorities from entering parts of the Prey Lang protected forest this afternoon. Several different groups of participants were stopped while traveling to the intended site of an annual Buddhist ceremony, which is held to raise awareness about illegal logging and conservation of Cambodia’s largest protected area.

Authorities from the Environment Ministry and local officials, some armed with guns, told several different groups across four provinces that they required permission from a “higher level” to be allowed to enter the forest and asked for “official permission letters” from participants. Such permission is not required by law.

Several participants also reported that local authorities threatened local villagers to pressure them not to allow participants to sleep in their villages during their travel or participate in the ceremony, which lasts for several days.