Concluding Statement for the Special Session of the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia, 4 March 2022

Thank you for participating in this special session of the commission of inquiry for Cambodia. Please join us for our next regular session in June, dealing with rule of law issues, and the principles of impunity and accountability. It will feature a comprehensive analysis of the Hun Sen government’s violations of rule of law standards, presented by Kingsley Abbott of the international commission of jurists, who has a unique personal knowledge and extensive in-country experience in dealing with these issues. 

The June session also will provide a more detailed examination of the most recent developments taking place in Cambodia that demonstrate the government’s refusal to abide by rule of law principles, and its misuse of the courts to falsely claim legal support for its violations. These include the assassination of Sin Kohn; the mass criminal trials of political opposition leaders and supporters; the refoulement of Cambodian refugees from Thailand; the forced closing of the mother nature environmental protection group; and, new decrees to monitor and punish social media postings and other internet uses along the lines of “the Great Firewall of China.” 

It also will feature an analysis of the actions taken by hun sen in October of 2010, to prematurely close down the operations of the Khmer Rouge tribunal and end its efforts to investigate the role that several of his associates, including his minister of foreign affairs, may have played in the Khmer Rouge genocide. Hun Sen’s actions to stop the efforts of the Khmer Rouge tribunal to obtain some degree of accountability for the killing fields genocide is one of the most powerful examples of his government’s refusal to adhere to the internationally recognized rule of law standards. 

Additional sessions of the Commission of Inquiry in the coming months will focus on other major democracy and human rights abuses that require international attention and action.