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Human rights concerns for Cambodia

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Human rights and labor rights groups in Cambodia are concerned about a new government law that would limit or even silence critical voices in the country. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports.

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KATY CLARK: Human rights and labor rights groups in Cambodia say they’re worried about a new law the government is considering. Activists say the law would limit or even silence critical voices in the Southeast Asian country. The legislation is called the Non-Government Organization Law, or the NGO Law. One of its provisions would prohibit NGOs from engaging in political activities. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad prepared this report in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD:  When the Vietnamese occupying Cambodia installed Hun Sen as prime minister 25 years ago, the country was an authoritarian, Communist state. There was no free press, no independent NGOs, no opposition parties, no democratic elections. The United Nations peacekeeping operation in the early 1990s was hailed for bringing in all of the above. And government spokesman Khieu Kanharith says Cambodia’s government has embraced the change.

KHIEU KANHARITH:  You know, for us, we are very clear. To be a democratic society, you need three pillars. Multi-partyism, an active civil society, and a strong press.

MAGISTAD: Cambodia now has some 3,000 NGOs, both local and foreign, and gets about 70% of its 1.7 billion dollar annual budget from international aid. But the record suggests that Hun Sen, who’s still in power, would like to have a less vocal civil society, and a less robust political opposition. In the years since the UN peacekeepers left, investigative journalists and labor activists have been assassinated in broad daylight. A coup shoved aside a democratically elected partner, elections have often been violent, and opposition leaders have been targeted with trumped-up criminal charges and, in one case, with grenades. More recently, new legislation has limited free speech by tightening defamation laws, and making it illegal for more than 200 people to demonstrate at one time. Still, they do, on occasion. This rally, in front of the National Assembly on a recent Sunday saw more than 500 mostly young and female factory workers gather, to call for a living wage. Ou Virak, the President of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, was on hand to monitor the gathering to make sure police didn’t mistreat the workers. He speaks for many critics when he says the law limiting protests bothers him, as does the proposed NGO law the government has said it soon intends to pass.

OU VIRAK: One of the articles, for example, is saying that NGO cannot participate in any political activities, or supporting political parties materially, or non-materially. And there’s no definition of such. NGOs could be closed down easily, without justification. There’s no due process. NGO leaders could be imprisoned for violating some of these articles. It left the whole thing so open for abuse.

MAGISTAD: Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith says the draft law is not as bad as all that. He says it requires NGO leaders to declare their assets and report their activities to avoid corruption and misuse of funds, including NGOs helping opposition political parties which, he says, has happened. He says the line about NGOs not being able to participate in political activities has a very specific meaning.

KANHARITH: It means if you want to create a political party, you have to set up a political party, but not to use the NGO and mostly the funding you get from a different purpose, and to use it on a political purpose.

MAGISTAD: And if it’s a human rights group that’s criticizing a government policy that they feel is in violation of international standards, is that a political activity?

KANHARITH: No, this is not a political activity.

MAGISTAD: In any case, Khieu Kanharith says, the government will consult with NGOs before it passes the law. But Lun Borithy, who heads an advocacy consortium for NGOs called the Cooperation Committee for Cambodia, says the timing of that consultation is crucial, and so far, the government has declined to show drafts of the law to NGOs, or meet with them.

LUN BORITHY:  It’s hard to say whether our input is taken on board. Because despite our efforts to engage, at a technical level, we have not managed to secure a high-level meeting yet to discuss the content of the law or at least to have a formal exchange of opinion about how we feel.

MAGISTAD: In the past, Lun Borithy says, as with the demonstration law, the government consulted with NGOs very late in the game, and took on board very few of their suggestions in the final draft. He worries this is all part of a pattern, of the space for civil society in Cambodia, shrinking. Even holding this peaceful labor rally, where a female worker here sings about the tribulations of factory life, was no easy feat. The local government refused to give a permit, and then police tried to block it. They gave in only after negotiations with human rights and labor rights groups on the scene. But a few years ago this would have been an automatic right under Cambodia’s democratic constitution. The concern is that, despite minor victories like this one, the squeeze on civil society is only getting worse and the proposed NGO law will give the government yet another way to silence voices, and challenges, it would prefer not to hear. For The World, I’m Mary Kay Magistad, Phnom Penh.

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