Human Rights Watch calls on the Human Rights Council to renew the mandate of the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Cambodia.
The Special Rapporteur on Cambodia has only been able to carry out one short visit to Cambodia since the time of his appointment and has thus not yet been able to conduct an in-depth assessment of the rights situation.
The Special Rapporteur's mandate should be renewed to provide time for him to better acquaint himself with the rights situation in Cambodia and present recommendations to improve the situation.
During the past year Human Rights Watch has documented a dramatic deterioration of the human rights situation in Cambodia. In particular, freedoms of expression, association, and assembly have been seriously compromised.
With increased suppression of opposition political parties, independent media, and civil society, Cambodia is moving closer towards becoming an authoritarian, one-party state, with few-if any- checks and balances.
Government officials continue to use an array of repressive tactics- including harassment, threats, violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, and spurious legal action-to suppress the voices and activities of opposition leaders, journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers, and other government critics.
While Cambodia has experienced economic growth since the UN Human Rights Commission adopted its first resolution on Cambodia in 1993, the government has made virtually no progress on legal and judicial reform. In fact, government officials are increasingly abusing the judicial system to silence dissent, by filing unwarranted lawsuits against government critics for criminal defamation, disinformation, and related charges.
In addition, ongoing political interference in the work of the UN-backed tribunal on Khmer Rouge atrocities continues to severely obstruct efforts for accountability and justice.
Cambodia faces numerous other human rights challenges, including political violence, impunity for high-level government officials involved in serious rights abuses, arbitrary detention, substandard prison conditions, and forced return of refugees and asylum seekers.
The gaps in economic and social rights between the elite and impoverished urban and rural dwellers continue to widen, exacerbated by large-scale forced evictions of tens of thousands of urban poor and illegal confiscation of farmers' land.
The worsening rights situation demonstrates the need for continued UN engagement in Cambodia.
With Cambodia's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) coming up this December, it is essential that the Cambodian government commit to continuing its cooperation with Cambodian Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The role of the Special Rapporteur will enhance and complement Cambodia's UPR, by providing assistance for the implementation of commitments made by the government during its UPR and regularly reporting to the Council on the status of implementation.
