Commissioner Paul Hoffman’s Statement for the Special Session of the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia, 4 March 2022
My name is Paul Hoffman, Commissioner on the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia.
Over many years working on cases and issues involving major human rights abuses taking place throughout the world, there are a number of important lessons that I have learned. One of the most important is the sad reality that highly autocratic and repressive regimes do not change their ways easily. A media report bringing attention to an abuse. A critical report or statement by a United Nations’ agency or official. Even photographic or video evidence confirming an horrendous violation. None of these things, by themselves, is enough to convince a major human rights abuser that they need to change their ways Instead, as Amnesty International’s highly successful approach makes clear, there has to be a major, highly coordinated effort by the international community, using a wide variety of platforms and pressure points, to shine a powerful spotlight on the abuses, and to convince a perpetrator that they will suffer serious consequences if they do not cease and desist. What has to take place is a full range of economic, diplomatic, legal and public pressures that will demonstrate that major abuses will not be allowed to take place with impunity. That violators will be held accountable in meaningful ways before the court of international public opinion, and powerful diplomatic and economic channels. That is the only way to get major human rights abusers to change their ways.
That is what the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia is trying to achieve with the situation in Cambodia. To build upon, and to bring together in a more coordinated and effective way, the various platforms and pressure points that have spoken out against the widespread human rights and democracy abuses of the Hun Sen regime, and to help to generate and mobilize a higher level of international attention and condemnation that cannot be ignored.
That is why the Commission decided to convene this Special Session, concurrent with the compliance review session on Cambodia that the United Nations Human Rights Committee is holding this very same day in Geneva, where many of the highest level officials of the Hun Sen government will be called to account as to why the government is arresting, criminally prosecuting, and even physically beating and killing anyone daring to politically oppose or publicly criticize the government’s policies and actions. We need to begin a comprehensive process of speaking truth to power, and demanding an end to longstanding human rights and democracy abuses in a loud and clear voice, backed up by all the available international pressure points.
Our official Statement to the UN Human Rights Committee, delivered just before the start of their March 3-4 compliance review hearing on Cambodia, made clear that: 1. Substantial and long-standing human rights and democracy abuses were taking place on a widespread basis in Cambodia in order to prevent opposition and criticism, and to keep the Hun Sen government in power on an uncontested basis; and, 2. That meaningful and effective changes in these highly oppressive policies would not be possible unless substantial remedial actions are taken. In this statement, I am reviewing and highlighting the findings and recommendations that the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia presented today to the UN Human Rights Committee. They represent the interim findings and recommendations that the Commission’s work has produced thus far, at this early stage of our efforts, and that we will be using to encourage and stimulate action by all the other available forums and pressure points in the international community, starting with today’s compliance review session of the UN Human Rights Committee.
As our Statement to the United Nations indicated, “at the top of the list” of abuses needing “foremost attention and action” is the decision of the Hun Sen government, carried out over a number of years, and most specifically in the run-up to the 2018 national elections, to eliminate the main political opposition party by having the courts declare it illegal, and by arresting and subjecting to criminal charges of inciting social unrest and treason, many of that party’s leaders and spokespersons. A mass criminal trial is currently taking place with that politically motivated purpose in mind, that is being carried out in direct violation of democracy and human rights standards that the Hun Sen government specifically agree to abide by when it signed the Paris Peace Accords in 1991, establishing the basic framework for the operation of the government of Cambodia.
These highly repressive policies and actions, designed to eliminate any form of meaningful political opposition, were supplemented by a series of repressive actions to restrict and punish the exercise of numerous internationally recognized human rights protections, including the freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association. Critical public voices were silenced by arrests, criminal prosecutions, vicious physical assaults, and even assassinations. Independent media outlets like the Cambodia Daily, the Phnom Penh Post, Voice of America and Radio Free Asia were forced to close, severely restrict their coverage, or leave the country. Restrictions and intensive monitoring were imposed on major community groups and activities. The courts and the law enforcement system was misused to punish and harass anyone daring to violate or criticize the government imposed restrictions. The environmental protection group Mother Nature and its environmental activist supporters were especially targeted, along with critical voices representing women, youth and workers. They were subjected to an intensive campaign of monitoring, intimidation, arrests and beatings, to silence their voices and to prevent public criticism of the government and its policies.
As we reported to the UN Human Rights Committee, there have been a number of recent developments that highlight in highly dramatic terms the extensive and horrific nature of the abuses that have been taking place, and that deserve urgent attention:
At the most recent hearing held in the mass criminal trial against political opposition leaders and critics on 6 November 2021, the court rejected protests by many of the defendants that their basic due process rights were being violated because of inadequate notice of the charges against them, unlawful changes in the make-up of the judicial panel, and restrictions imposed on who could attend the hearing that violated their right to a public trial, by simply dismissing these objections out of hand by stating dismissively, “there is nothing to worry about.”
Between November 9 and 20, 2021, Thai immigration officials, at the direct request of the Hun Sen government, arbitrarily and unlawfully returned (refouled) three Cambodian refugees to Cambodia, despite their having been designated as meeting refugee requirements by the U.N. Refugee Office. This forced return was in direct violation of the non-refoulement standards embodied in international law. They were immediately arrested and subjected to criminal prosecution on their forced return to Cambodia, further confirming that they were indeed fleeing to avoid persecution, as the UN had acknowledged. These three refugees were not the only ones that have been subjected to unlawful forced return from Thailand. Many others have been subjected to similar treatment in the past, pursuant to an agreement between the Thai and Cambodian governments to ignore the international standards and return refugees to the countries that they were fleeing.
Youth activist Sin Khon was hacked to death on the street on 22 November, 2021, just days after Prime Minister Hun Sen warned the public that they would be punished if they protested his appointment as chair of an upcoming ASEAN head of state meeting, soon to take place in Cambodia. This was not the first time that Sin Khon was targeted for attack for public criticism of Hun Sen and his government. And it was just the latest example of how the government uses brutal attacks as a means of intimidating the public and punishing critics. There is a long line of similar cases, starting with the grenade attacks on an opposition political rally in 1997, the assassinations of Kem Ley and Chea Vichea, and the brutal beatings of members of Parliament Kong Sophea and Nhay Chamroeun, where independent investigators, including the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, found evidence that government agents, including members of Hun Sen own personal bodyguard unit, had played a major role in these attacks.
Environmental protection group, Mother Nature, was forced to close down the Cambodia office the first week in January, 2022, in the face of the arrest of all six of its in-country staffers, and dozens of its Cambodian supporters, for protesting government plans to develop public areas, and privately held properties, including Phnom Penh’s largest lake area, for commercial benefit, forcing many families from their ancestral lands without proper compensation.
Plans have just been announced to intensify efforts to subject Internet and social media users to monitoring and surveillance, and arresting those who post statements critical of the government. A new law has been proposed that will establish a Cambodian National Internet Gateway system on 16, February (similar to China’s “Great Firewall ” Internet monitoring system), that will allow the government to closely monitor online content, close down access to “objectionable sites and postings,” and punish those expressing views on social media that the government does not like. Cambodian authorities defend this plan “as essential for peace and security,” claiming that “people are encouraged to use the Internet, up until it is used for purposes to incite social unrest.” (Government spokesperson Phay Siphan, quoted in “Cambodia’s Internet May Soon Be Like China’s: State Controlled,” by Charles McDermid, New York Times, 15 January, 2022). Kea Sokun, 23 year old artist and rapper, along with approximately “thirty others” have already been arrested and imprisoned for their social media postings since 2020, according to the Times. They include 16 year old, Kak Sovann Chhay, “for comments he made in a chat group on Telegram, and a former agriculture professor who made “jokes on Facebook about requiring chickens to wear anti-Covid masks,” as part of critical comments about the government’s handling of the pandemic. They also include three journalists who were arrested and charged in the first week of January with “inciting social unrest” for posting a news article dealing with a land dispute problem. Many more arrests and restrictions are expected to follow under the new decree.
Taken together, these new developments paint a bleak and very disturbing picture of how the Hun Sen government is using a variety of harshly repressive tactics to prevent and punish any form of public criticism and how it is misusing the courts and the legal system to prohibit the exercise of internationally protected rights, and to mask these major abuses behind the semblance of a legal process. Asked to explain why he was arrested for posting his songs on Facebook, rapper Kea Sokun explained: “The government made an example of me to scare people who talk about social issues.” The government’s goal is to suppress any form of dissent, opposition or criticism by designating such comments as “unlawful” and “criminal in nature” because they may encourage or incite “social unrest.”
Conclusion: The Time for Meaningful Remedial Action Is Now
We are approaching a very critical time for Cambodia. Local elections will be taking place this year, and national elections in 2023. Unless the international community takes some form of action now to encourage and produce change, nothing will prevent the Hun Sen government from further solidifying its 37-year reign by eliminating any semblance of a democratic system, and by further entrenching its policies of repression of civil society and the exercise of internationally protected rights by the Khmer people. What remedial actions are needed to return Cambodia to a reasonable level of compliance with international democracy, human rights and rule of law standards?
Our submission to the UN Human Rights Committee set out a few of the essential remedial steps that must be taken. First, and most important, the partial release of a small number of political prisoners that took place in November of 2021 is far from enough, especially since they remain subject to severe restrictions on their activities, and face further criminal action at the discretion of government officials. All political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, not just a small sample, must be released, and the misuse of the courts and the criminal process to prevent and punish the exercise of free speech and free association rights must stop. Misuse of the courts, and hiding behind a judicial process that is not independent but is controlled for politically motivated purposes, does not convert harshly repressive policies and actions into a lawful system of justice.
Second, media outlets, including social media commentators, must be allowed to operate on an open, independent and unrestricted basis. Those outlets that were closed or taken over must be returned to their former independent status.
Third, suppression of meaningful political opposition must end. The major opposition political party must be returned to a situation where they are recognized as legal, and able to operate without government imposed restrictions or controls. Leaders and members of the political opposition must be allowed to speak their views and conduct their activities without being subjected to criminal prosecution, arrest or brutal beatings.
Fourth, civil society groups, like Mother Nature, and labor unions, must be allowed to operate and to express their views, without restriction, and without being subjected to criminal charges simply for exercising their free speech and free association rights, however embarrassing their positions may be to the government.
Unless these core remedial steps are taken, so that the political opposition can once again operate effectively, and members of the public can freely express their views without fear of reprisals, the results of the upcoming elections do not deserve to be recognized as valid and legitimate by the international community, and a wide variety of diplomatic and economic sanctions should be imposed on Cambodia. These sanctions should include restrictions on trade with Cambodian companies, building on the trade limitations that the European Union recently imposed, an embargo on tourism, and a consumers’ boycott of Cambodian produced goods. They also should include a wide variety of sanctions by foreign governments, such as refusal to grant visas to visiting officials, freezing of assets, and refusal to grant diplomatic recognition.
We hope that the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and all international agencies and entities having dealings with the government of Cambodia, will give serious consideration to the steps that they can take to make clear that the increasingly serious democracy, human rights and rule of law abuses of the Hun Sen government will not be tolerated. For its part, the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia will continue its work in the coming months, by giving attention to some of the most serious violations of international law. Our June session will be devoted to rule of law issues, with Kingsley Abbott of the International Commission of Jurists providing the keynote expert testimony. In September, Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch will provide a comprehensive historical review of the major abuses that have been taking place. Throughout the year, we will be working to coordinate our fact-finding efforts with those of other international agencies, as we are doing today with the UN Human Rights Committee, to maximize the pressures that can be brought to bear to move Cambodia in the direction of more effective compliance with international democracy and human rights standards. Join with us in this important effort.