LIBRARY

4 April 2022

We, the undersigned organisations, remain deeply concerned about Cambodia’s failure to conduct a thorough, independent, transparent, and effective investigation into the suspected enforced disappearance of Thai activist Wanchalearm Satsaksit and the resulting impunity. As the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) prepares for a preliminary review of the situation of enforced disappearances in Cambodia on 5 April 2022, we call on the CED to address Cambodia’s persistent failure to conduct a prompt and thorough search for Wanchalearm to determine his fate and whereabouts or to effectively and transparently investigate his disappearance.

We stand in solidarity with Wanchalearm and his family and all victims of enforced disappearance, and call on Cambodia to address apparent failures of the investigating to date, and to immediately disclose any information they may have about his fate and whereabouts, and to ensure truth, justice and reparations for his family”. We agree with the CED that “the very nature of enforced disappearance [is] a continuous crime” which presents grave risks to the rights to life, liberty, security of person, freedom from secret detention and torture, as well as the right to family life. Families of those disappeared have faced incalculable suffering, while being deprived of the right to obtain redress and have closure.

29 March 2022

We are deeply alarmed by Cambodia reopening intercountry adoptions and the Italian government’s apparent disclosure that at least nine potential adoptions from Cambodia are being processed by Italian adoption agencies. We fear these decisions will lead to more families being irreparably torn apart by a poorly regulated system that has failed to protect children’s best interests in the past.

Cambodia reports having sent 3,696 children abroad for adoption between 1998 and 2011. The country suspended intercountry adoptions following evidence of fraud and corruption. Cambodian officials forged documents to falsely change some children’s names or ages or claim they were orphaned or abandoned, before children were adopted abroad without their parents’ knowledge or consent.

25 March 2022

Authorities have alarmingly escalated the use of violence and mass detention of union members in front of NagaWorld casino in recent weeks, as well as increasing restrictions placed on human rights monitors and journalists covering the authorities’ worsening crackdown. We, the undersigned civil society groups, urge the government to de-escalate the situation and stop the repeated intimidation of strikers, including driving them to various areas far from the city center and leaving them stranded there late at night.

We are concerned by recent actions from authorities prohibiting human rights monitors and journalists from observing the continued use of violence against peaceful strikers, most of whom are women. On multiple occasions, authorities have barred human rights monitors and journalists from taking photographs or standing near the site of these heavy-handed detentions. Journalists have been threatened with arrest for covering the strike, and in several cases authorities have pushed monitors and journalists away as authorities violently drag strikers onto buses. They have also threatened to detain monitors alongside strikers at Covid-19 quarantine centers.

17 March 2022

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court this morning sentenced 12 jailed former members of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and one Interior Ministry official to 5 years in prison (with 16 months suspended), meaning the men will serve a total of 3 years and 8 months in prison on charges of incitement and plotting. They are all scheduled to be detained through the national elections in 2023.

Additionally, seven former CNRP leaders – including Sam Rainsy, Mu Sochua and Eng Chai Eang - were convicted in absentia on charges of incitement, plotting, and inciting military personnel to disobedience, and sentenced to a total of 10 years in prison. Warrants for their arrest were also issued.

The “inciting military personnel to disobedience” charge was originally filed against 21 defendants, but was dropped against those currently detained in the country and another man, Hin Chann, who was originally imprisoned alongside the 13 but later released. Chann today was sentenced to five years in prison for incitement and plotting, but had his entire sentence suspended.

10 March 2022

The Phnom Penh Appeal Court this morning upheld the lower court’s decision to deny bail to eight union members and leaders from the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld (LRSU). After the verdict, the eight were returned to Correctional Centre 1 (CC1) and Correctional Centre 2 (CC2) in Phnom Penh, where they are in pre-trial detention on charges of incitement.

The eight were arrested in December 2021 and January 2022 while participating in a strike against NagaWorld casino. They include union leader Chhim Sithar, union secretary Chhim Sokhorn, and unionists Hay Sopheap, Kleang Soben, Ry Sovandy, Sun Srey Pich, and Touch Sereymeas, as well as former union member Sok Narith. The Appeal Court’s decision came one day after a high-level meeting between leaders from the police, courts, and ministries organized by Interior Minister Sar Kheng to discuss the NagaWorld labour dispute.

Three additional LRSU members - Choub Channath, Sao Sambath, and Seng Vannarith – are also in pre-trial detention after being arrested in February 2022 on charges of obstructing enforcement measures under the newly passed Covid-19 law. Despite these arrests, union members have continued their strike to call for NagaWorld to respect labour rights and reinstate improperly dismissed workers, even as the government has arrested the union’s leaders, harassed striking workers, and detained more than one hundred strikers in government quarantine facilities using the new Covid-19 law in recent months.

10 March 2022

We are deeply disturbed by reports of widespread human trafficking into Cambodia leading to forced labour, slavery and torture at compounds across the country. Dozens of media reports and numerous victim accounts collected by local and international organisations suggest that thousands of people, mostly foreign nationals, are entrapped in these situations. We call on the government to take meaningful and coordinated action to respond to these gross human rights violations, and to investigate alleged complicity between some government authorities and the criminal enterprises.

8 March 2022

More than 3,000 people joined events to celebrate International Women’s Day 2022 across 12 provinces and the capital Phnom Penh. Communities, farmers, unionists, informal workers, land activists, youth, civil society members and others joined events and shared speeches about challenges faced by women in their communities. They spoke out for imprisoned unionists to be released, for an end to gender based violence and discrimination, for women to be able to enjoy their rights to expression and assembly, and more. Many communities also marched, released balloons, led question and answer sessions, and shared solidarity lunches.

While most events were celebrated on 8 March, communities began celebration on 6 March and two further events are planned in Banteay Meanchey and Preah Vihear provinces. In Pursat province, an event was cancelled following threats and intimidation by commune authorities and a district governor.

8 March 2022

Women unionists have faced targeted harassment in an attempt to intimidate them into stopping their strike. LICADHO is releasing a video featuring several of these brave women to mark International Women’s Day.

7 March 2022

The 10 human rights defenders (HRDs) whose profiles are outlined below are leaders and members of the Labour Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld (LRSU). The unionists are all former employees of NagaWorld, a highly profitable, Malaysian-owned casino with an exclusive operating license in Phnom Penh.

These men and women are currently imprisoned in Correctional Center 2 (CC2) and Phnom Penh’s PJ prison.

24 February 2022

We, the undersigned civil society groups, communities and trade unions, are dismayed by recent incidents of state-sponsored violence, including sexual harassment, against Cambodian women engaged in peaceful strikes and assemblies. Members of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld (LRSU) – most of whom are women – have been subjected to violence, imprisonment, and arbitrary application of COVID-19 measures in response to their peaceful strike since December 2021.

Authorities have repeatedly pushed, dragged and carried peaceful strikers onto buses to take them to a COVID-19 quarantine centre in Prek Phnov district, Phnom Penh this week. On 22 February 2022, a male officer grabbed and squeezed the breast of one woman as she was being forced onto a bus. Similarly, on 29 December 2021, state authorities used vulgar sexual language toward a striker and threatened to sexually assault her.

23 February 2022

Brigade 70 soldiers and workers hired to clear forested land used violence, beat villagers and fired weapons into the ground yesterday morning in Aoral district, Kampong Speu province, as part of an ongoing land conflict around a forest granted to a military unit. Three villagers were left injured, including a 23-year-old man, a 41-year-old man and a 59-year-old woman.

Villagers had gathered in Trapeang Chour commune in an effort to defend their community's forested land from being cleared. Today, six community members also appeared for questioning at the Kampong Speu provincial court after being summonsed by a prosecutor.

The land conflict began after the government granted 262 hectares of protected land within the Aoral Wildlife Sanctuary to the armoured vehicle military unit “ACO” through a sub decree dated 20 August 2021. The conflict involves more than 253 families, many of whom have mobilized for months to protect their forested land. In April 2003, the Ministry of Environment declared part of the land a community protected area. Since the recent giveaway, soldiers have been seen using heavy machinery in an attempt to clear the forest.

21 February 2022

Authorities detained as many as 64 striking workers from the Labour Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld (LRSU) this afternoon as they continued their peaceful strike, forcing 56 women and 8 men into crowded buses and bringing them to a Covid-19 quarantine center run by Cambodian Women for Peace and Development in Prek Phnov district, Phnom Penh.

The use of Covid -19 measures to crackdown on the striking workers has been ongoing for weeks, despite no such public health measures being applied to any other group of citizens. Hundreds of workers have submitted to multiple Covid-19 tests and completed government-mandated quarantine measures at home prior to today's arrests. On 9 February, three workers were charged under the Covid-19 law with obstructing enforcement measures, marking a total of 11 union members and leaders charged and imprisoned since the strike began in December 2021. Eight others have been charged with incitement.

On 16 February, five UN special rapporteurs decried the use of Covid-19 quarantine measures on the striking workers, noting a “general inconsistency and lack of transparency” in the country’s Covid-19 measures, calling the three arrests “unjustified, unnecessary and disproportionate.”

10 February 2022

We, the undersigned civil society groups, trade unions and communities are extremely disappointed and concerned over the conviction of Mr. Chhorn Phalla, who was sentenced to five years imprisonment by the Ratanakiri Provincial Court on 10 November 2021 after a hearing on 29 September 2021. During that hearing the prosecutor changed the charge against Chhorn Phalla from “fell trees, encroached and cleared forest land, set forest fire, and bulldozed forestlands to claim ownership” under Article 62 of the Law on Natural Protected Areas to “clear forestland and enclose it to claim for ownership” under Article 97 (6) of the Law on Forestry, without substantial evidence to support this change. The change of the charges violated Chhorn Phalla’s fair trial rights, as it affected his right to have adequate time to prepare his defense. The court nevertheless convicted Chhorn Phalla under the new charges and sentenced him to five years imprisonment. During the trial, witnesses stated that Chhorn Phalla did not clear forestland and enclosed it to claim for ownership. Chhorn Phalla himself confirmed that he does not own any piece of land in that area.

9 February 2022

Three more unionists from the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld (LRSU) were charged on Wednesday with obstructing authorities’ health measures and sent to pre-trial detention in Phnom Penh’s PJ prison. Deputy prosecutor Seng Heang has also issued an “order to bring” for four additional LRSU unionists, which compels authorities to forcibly take them in for questioning.

Choub Channath, Sao Sambath and Seng Vannarith were charged under Article 11 of the Covid-19 law, with authorities accusing them of obstruction of enforcement measures. The charges carry between six months and three years in prison and a fine of up to 10 million riel – though the penalty increases to between two and five years in prison and a fine of up to 20 million riel if the act leads to Covid-19 infections or has “serious impact” on public health.

The three men were arrested on Saturday around 7:30 pm as they were leaving a Koh Pich Covid-19 testing site in a tuk-tuk. Earlier that day, the government ordered LRSU strikers into buses to go to the testing center and take multiple Covid tests. Strikers had complied with the order, including the three detained individuals who had all tested negative. A total of six people were arrested that evening, but three were later released.

7 February 2022

We, the undersigned civil society organizations working on the promotion and protection of human rights labor rights, land rights , environmental activists, independent analyst and social researcher in the Kingdom of Cambodia, wish to inform His Excellency of our deep disappointment at the authorities’ abuse of the Cambodian legal framework to wrongly arrest, detain and charge eight union leaders and continues to arrest more union activists for their peaceful exercise of freedom of association and freedom of assembly, both of which are protected in domestic and international law.

Therefore, we, the undersigned civil society organizations working on the promotion and protection of human rights and labor rights in Cambodia, request His Excellency to intervene in order to have the eight jailed union leaders and activists released and all charges against them dropped and to find a just and fair resolution to this labor dispute.

7 February 2022

LICADHO staff support and show solidarity with employees of NagaWorld by calling for the immediate and unconditional release of eight unjustly imprisoned union representatives. We also call on NagaWorld to enter negotiations to address and end this labour dispute peacefully and reinstate the 365 employees, as well as stop all harassment against the union. Joining a union and peaceful strikes are not crimes.

24 January 2022

The UK-based “sustainable sugarcane” certification body Bonsucro violated its international human rights responsibilities, according to a statement released by the UK National Contact Point (UK NCP), a government body that handles complaints against British multinational enterprises. The NCP found that Bonsucro breached the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises when it admitted the Thai sugar giant Mitr Phol as a member after thousands of families were violently thrown off their land to make way for the company’s sugarcane plantations in Cambodia.

18 January 2022

Today marks one month since workers from the Labor Rights Supported by Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld (LRSU) began striking and holding daily peaceful demonstrations in central Phnom Penh. Workers continue to strike to oppose the casino’s mass layoff of union members and leaders and improper compensation packages for longtime employees, among other issues.

5 January 2022

Today the Phnom Penh Municipal Court ordered LRSU union leader Chhim Sithar to be sent to pre-trial detention in Correctional Centre 2 (CC2) prison, while union activist Sok Narith was ordered to be sent to Correctional Centre 1 (CC1) prison, and a third activist, Sok Kongkea, was ordered released on bail and placed under judicial supervision.

All three face charges of incitement under Articles 494 and 495 of the Criminal Code, the same charges faced by six other members of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld (LRSU) who were arrested on 31 December 2021. The other six detained unionists currently held in CC2 prison are Chhim Sokhorn, Kleang Soben, Sun Sreypich, Hai Sopheap, Ry Sovandy, Touch Sereymeas.

Sithar was violently arrested yesterday while trying to join hundreds of other LRSU members at a strike site near the NagaWorld casino in Phnom Penh. 119 local groups have called for all 9 unionists immediate release and for the incitement charges to be dropped, and for the company and government to address workers’ demands peacefully.

4 January 2022

We the undersigned civil society groups, including union federations, confederations, and associations as well as NGOs, are dismayed by the measures taken by authorities, led by the Phnom Penh Police Commissariat, to detain 9 union leaders and members on the night of December 31, 2021, and to further violently arrest LRSU union leader Chhim Sithar on the afternoon of January 4, 2022. We call for all arrested unionists’ immediate and unconditional release.