(New York) – Killings by security forces, arrests of activists and opposition politicians, summary trials, and crackdowns on peaceful protest characterized the human rights situation in Cambodia in 2014, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2015. Donor countries made no concerted efforts to stop the precipitous backsliding by the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who this month passed the 30-year mark in power in Cambodia.
In Cambodia, Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) blocked all attempts to investigate and redress fraud in the fundamentally flawed 2013 national elections, which it claimed to have won against the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).
“If the government was truly respectful of the people’s will as expressed in elections and peaceful demonstrations, 2014 could have been a year of great human rights progress for Cambodia,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Instead, the year was the worst for human rights violations in Cambodia in a long time.”
In the 656-page world report, its 25th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth urges governments to recognize that human rights offer an effective moral guide in turbulent times, and that violating rights can spark or aggravate serious security challenges. The short-term gains of undermining core values of freedom and non-discrimination are rarely worth the long-term price.
Security force abuses and politically motivated convictions by government-controlled courts led to an escalation in the number of killings and unjust imprisonment of activists, critics, and protesters. Police and gendarmes using excessive force to repress demonstrations fatally shot or beat to death at least seven people. The police, prosecutors, and courts pursued at least 90 politically motivated cases against members of opposition political groups, trade unionists, and other civil society activists, including Buddhist monks. At least 55 people were sentenced to prison terms in unfair trials in which no credible evidence of wrongdoing was presented against them. The security forces continued to enjoy total impunity for current and past human rights violations.
Many of those targeted were singled out for their peaceful activities against land-grabbing by Cambodia’s rich and powerful, creating a land crisis that remains unresolved.
“Despite government promises and a few cosmetic gestures, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians still suffer the ill-effects of land dispossession, with new disputes arising each day,” Adams said. “The government promised an end to illegal land-takings but 2014 saw business as usual.”
One of the most problematic developments in 2014 was the passage of three laws that increase CPP control over the judiciary, Human Rights Watch said. Together, the laws encourage further encroachment by the government on areas properly reserved for the judiciary under the principle of separation of powers, including government control over the judiciary’s budget and administration, restrictions on the free expression rights of judges, and fewer safeguards for judicial independence in selection, promotion, removal, and disciplinary procedures for judges. Enactment of these laws contradicted longstanding government promises to donors of increased judicial independence, yet most donors remained silent.
The government appeared determined to silence public dissent by reverting to summary trials to imprison social activists.
“Most of Cambodia’s foreign donors have simply stood by and watched as Hun Sen tries to turn the clock back two decades and create a de facto one-party state,” Adams said. “Before it’s too late the donors should demand real reforms and stop pretending that the Hun Sen government has any intention of respecting pluralism or fundamental freedoms.”
