Concluding Statement for the Launch Announcement Session of the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia, 23 October 2021
What can we expect from the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia? What is to come? In future weeks and months, the commission will hold several individual sessions and hearings focused on several specific issues where the policies and practices of the Hun Sen government have resulted in major abuses that violate the democracy and human rights standards set out in the Paris Peace Accords and other international instruments. Victims of these abuses, and international experts dealing with these issues, will provide testimony to the commission during its upcoming hearings. and sessions.
The ‘model’ that the commission will use to determine which problems deserve priority attention will be what the United Nations Human Rights Committee calls its “list of issues.” That is the list that the United Nations issued on 28 August 2020 that was drafted to guide the compliance review that the United Nations was originally scheduled to conduct for Cambodia in early 2021 before the COVID pandemic severely altered the scheduling of the UN’s human rights periodic compliance review process. Large in-person meetings between UN experts and country delegations were not possible at that time. This United Nations Human Rights compliance review on Cambodia now is likely to take place sometime next year, in 2022.
Among the critical subjects taken from the United Nations’ list of issues for Cambodia that the commission will be considered in detail at its official compliance review session, will be:
Eliminating democracy in Cambodia. Closing down the democratic process, and destroying the validity of the 2018 elections (as well as the upcoming 2022/2023 elections), bypassing a law declaring the leading opposition political party illegal; placing criminal charges against, and arresting, numerous leaders and members of the political opposition, forcing many of them into exile; and, placing severe restrictions on the operation of civil society organizations and activities.
Destroying the operation of the free press and media, and monitoring and censoring social media communications.
Misusing the courts and the law enforcement system for political purposes.
Suppressing free speech and free association rights on a widespread basis.
Engaging in massive arbitrary arrests and imprisonments to punish and prevent criticism of government actions and policies.
Expelling international monitoring and reporting agencies, and groups engaged in supporting democracy and human rights.
It is important to note that the government of Cambodia, in its official reply to the United Nations’ list of issues, openly acknowledged many of these abuses and violations, claiming that they were justified and carried out by “the nation in a state of emergency,” and under legal processes authorized by the Cambodian constitution and laws.
For example, the government claimed that the closing down of the independent media just before the 2018 elections was necessary because “they did not respect their professionalism and violated [national] laws.” Similarly, the government tried to justify restrictions on free speech and assembly by claiming that those who were arrested or prosecuted exercised their rights “in violation of criminal and civil laws,” because their speech “exaggerated information, incited violence, and provoked … social unrest.”
No doubt, the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s official compliance review of Cambodia in 2022, as well as the Commission of Inquiry’s upcoming issue-oriented hearings, will have a great deal more to say about whether the Hun Sen government can justify admitted violations of free speech and association rights, and other internationally protected activities, by claiming that the exercise of these rights supposedly conflicted with national laws, as interpreted by the Cambodian government. One of the most important problems that the United Nations and the international community must address is that the Hun Sen government has used the courts and the criminal justice process as a principal means of repression, filing criminal charges, and conducting mass trials against its critics and political opponents for political, as opposed to legitimate law enforcement, purposes. An independent judiciary is a vital element for protecting and preserving the essential principles of democracy and human rights that the Paris Peace Accords established.
Another important element of the upcoming work of the Commission of Inquiry will be the opportunity to hear directly from the victims of the Hun Sen government’s abuses. One of the upcoming sessions will be devoted to hearing the testimonies of the victims themselves. Giving victims this opportunity to tell their own stories, and to personally voice their demand for justice and accountability, will be a vital part of the commission’s work, just as it was for other international bodies like the war crimes tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The world needs to hear the truth, and the voice of the victims of atrocities is an essential part of that truth.
One of the core questions that keep being asked is:
“Why will the Commission of Inquiry be able to prevent human rights and democracy abuses in Cambodia when past actions of the United Nations and the international community were not able to produce that result? Hun Sen has said many times that he refuses to bow to pressures from the international community. Why will he do so now?”
The answer lies with the highly successful philosophy and approaches used by one of the stalwart groups fighting for human rights – Amnesty Unternational. Amnesty has been highly successful in forcing even the most powerful and entrenched dictators and authoritarian regimes to pay attention to human rights standards and to free prisoners of conscience from imprisonment. How did they do it? By shining a powerful spotlight on atrocities, and by mobilizing massive public opinion, demanding change, and making clear that abuses would not be tolerated – that justice and accountability must be served.
The Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia can be an important and effective first step in that process. It cannot accomplish its purposes alone. Its work must be combined with many other strong and effective advocacy efforts designed to build public pressures and shine a relentless spotlight on the abuses that the Hun Sen regime has been, and is currently, carrying out. We have to make use of all the available forums, and all of the platforms and voices that we can mobilize, to produce meaningful change and to force the Hun Sen government that they cannot simply ignore and violate the law with impunity.
The convening today of the work of the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia is a beginning – the first step of many that must be taken to “bring truth to power,” and to mobilize a strong international movement to force the Hun Sen government to abide by the democracy and human rights standards of the Paris Peace Accords and international law.
Join the Commission of Inquiry in its quest for justice and accountability for Cambodia. The commission does not offer a simple, fast, one-step solution. It provides a beginning in a growing movement towards the truth for the Khmer people.