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On 28 April 2006 the Municipality of Phnom Penh issued a ban on peaceful demonstrations that three trade unions had planned to celebrate International Labour Day on May 1. The trade unions–the I...

Under sustained international pressure, the government of Cambodia on April 21 decided to remove the custodial sentence of eight days to one year for defamation under article 63 of the 1992 criminal l...

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is forwarding to you a statement issued by the World Forum for Democratization in Asia. The statement points specifically to the current state of...

In its meeting with NGOs on April 6, 2006 to discuss the draft law on demonstrations, Cambodia’s ministry of interior announced a ban on any demonstration to protest against the prime minister. ...

On March 28 Prime Minister Hun Sen repeated an earlier commitment to decriminalize defamation in Cambodia. Unfortunately, there are good reasons to doubt his promise. In 2005 the prime minister used C...

On March 29 and 30 Prime Minister Hun Sen mounted successive attacks on the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for human rights in Cambodia, Professor Yash Ghai. The special representa...

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to strongly condemn the comments made by Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen who launched a scathing attack on a UN envoy who criticis...

At the end of his second mission as the Special Representative of the Secretary General on human rights in Cambodia (March 19-28, 2006), Professor Yash Ghai pointed to the stark fear present throughou...

On 30 March 1997 Sam Rainsy–now leader of Cambodia’s opposition party–organised and led a peaceful demonstration in front of the National Assembly in Phnom Penh. The rally was called...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that recently a judge at the provincial court of Rattanakiri in northeast Cambodia took a bribe of over USD 13,000 in exchange for the release on b...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) notes that, as a result of encouragement from the international community, the Cambodian government signed the First Optional Protocol to the International Cov...

The latest draft of Cambodia’s law on peaceful demonstrations is so restrictive, that if adopted, the Cambodian people will be unable to exercise their rights to demonstrate and express their op...

In violation of their right to freedom to expression, the Kampuchea Krom community, on March 6, 2006 was denied permission to demonstrate against the arrival of Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai...

Although a group of villagers–members of an indigenous community–in Cambodia’s northeastern province of Rattanakiri were told by local authorities that their lands were reserved for ...

The Asian Human Rights Commission urges the Cambodian government, led by Prime Minister Hun Sen, to abolish Article 63 of the UNTAC Law of 1992 on criminal defamation and libel and thereby fulfil the ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has recently secured a pardon for opposition leader Sam Rainsy and his colleague Cheam Channy, who were respectively given a jail sentence of 18 months for alleged def...

[RE: UP-013-2006: BANGLADESH: Three persons tortured by the Chapainawabganj police; UA-041-2006: BANGLADESH: Eight people killed and at least one hundred injured by police fire in Chapainawabganj dist...

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) takes the opportunity of the first anniversary of Cheam Channy’s imprisonment to write to you regarding the injustices of this case. Cheam Channy, a MP from t...

The promise made by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to withdraw criminal defamation lawsuits against five human rights activists is welcomed by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). The five acti...

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the arrest of two prominent human rights activists, Mr. Kem Sokha and Mr. Yeng Virak, which took place in Phno...