• Human Rights in Cambodia

    Cambodia’s human rights record remains poor.  The judiciary lacks independence, leaving the government free to threaten arrest and prosecution and to curtail the right to free speech. The government also jails its critics, disperses peaceful protests by workers, displaces communities and farmers, and silences opposition party members.  The military and police frequently kill and torture criminal suspects with impunity, threaten human rights defenders, and forcibly evict residents from land coveted by commercial interests.  Government interference threatened to undermine the tribunal trying senior Khmer Rouge officials for genocide, as well as prevent prosecution of additional cases submitted by the international co-prosecutor.  

  • People display portraits of President Barack Obama on the roof of their house near Phnom Penh Airport on November 14, 2012. Residents say that they want Obama’s help after 182 families living around the airport have been served eviction notices ahead of Obama’s visit as Cambodia hosts the ASEAN and East Asia summits.

    © 2012 Reuters
    Cambodia: Obama Should Publicly Denounce Rights Abuses

    US President Barack Obama should publicly express grave concern about Cambodia’s long deteriorating human rights situation while in Phnom Penh for the US-ASEAN and East Asia summits on November 19 and 20, 2012, Human Rights Watch said today. Hun Sen, Asia’s longest serving head of government, has ruled Cambodia for over 27 years and has publicly vowed to remain in power for another 30.

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Cambodia

  • Cambodia: Sham Court Cases Undermine Rights
    Dec 27, 2012

    Two criminal cases decided in Phnom Penh on December 27, 2012, demonstrate the Cambodian government’s flagrant misuse of the justice system to undermine rights.

  • Cambodia: Investigate Government Cover-Up
    Dec 22, 2012

    The Cambodian government should appoint an independent commission to investigate allegations that a ruling party municipal governor shot and wounded three women workers, Human Rights Watch said today. On December 14, 2012, the Svay Rieng provincial court closed the case against then-Bavet Municipality Governor Chhouk Bandit for allegedly firing into a crowd of striking factory employees at an industrial park in Bavet’s Special Economic Zone for foreign enterprises on February 20.

  • Civil Society Denounces Adoption of Flawed ASEAN Human Rights Declaration
    Nov 19, 2012
    Disregarding the deep concerns expressed by senior United Nations officials, human rights experts and hundreds of civil society and grassroots organisations at the national, regional and international levels, ASEAN leaders nonetheless adopted yesterday an “ASEAN Human Rights Declaration” that undermines, rather than affirms, international human rights law and standards.
  • Cambodia: Obama Should Publicly Denounce Rights Abuses
    Nov 18, 2012

    US President Barack Obama should publicly express grave concern about Cambodia’s long deteriorating human rights situation while in Phnom Penh for the US-ASEAN and East Asia summits on November 19 and 20, 2012, Human Rights Watch said today. Hun Sen, Asia’s longest serving head of government, has ruled Cambodia for over 27 years and has publicly vowed to remain in power for another 30.

  • Speak Truth to Cambodia's Dictator
    Nov 18, 2012
    In his election-night victory speech in Chicago, U.S. President Barack Obama recognized that people in many parts of the world are still struggling for the most basic of rights.
  • Cambodia: Stop disrupting civil society events and restricting freedom of expression and assembly ahead of ASEAN Summit
    Nov 15, 2012
  • Cambodia: Hun Sen Promoting, Rewarding Killers
    Nov 13, 2012

    (New York) – Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s violent and authoritarian rule over more than two decades has resulted in countless killings and other serious abuses that have gone unpunished, Human Rights Watch said in a new report today. President Barack Obama should use his November trip to Cambodia, the first ever by a United States president, to publicly demand systematic reforms and an end to impunity for abusive officials.

  • Cambodia: Quash Convictions of Critics, Protesters
    Oct 2, 2012
    Cambodia’s donors, including the United States, European Union, Japan, and the United Nations, should insist on the immediate release of prominent critic of the government Mom Sonando and other activists convicted on trumped-up charges.
  • Walmart's Human Trafficking Problem
    Sep 17, 2012

    Americans love shrimp, there’s no doubt about it. But the American appetite for shrimp now poses challenges for U.S. companies that import it.

  • Cambodia: Joint Statement Regarding Detention of Women Land Activists
    Sep 13, 2012

    [Cambodia] Latest Detention of Women Land Activists: Rights Groups Call for Immediate Release, Condemn Government’s Ongoing Persecution of Human Rights Defenders.

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