Introductory Statement for the National Election of the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia, 22 July 2023

Welcome to the fourth and most significant formal hearing of the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia. Most significant because it precedes, and is especially focused on, the July 2023 national elections in Cambodia. These elections are designed to provide the Cambodian people with the opportunity to select their national leadership for the coming decade. But as the United Nations has made painstakingly clear in a series of unusually frank and hard-hitting reports and statements in recent months, the 2023 elections, significant as they may be, cannot be taken seriously or treated as legitimate, free and fair elections, given the Hun Sen government’s decade or more long campaign to repress civil society, destroy its ability to exercise a meaningful and realistic choice, and eliminating all available and effective political opposition, and criticism of the government’s policies and practices. What the United Nations did, was to set out a detailed set of “Action Steps” reform measures that had to be implemented well before the July balloting, in order to address the major problems they identified, in order to strengthen civil society and make it possible for the elections to be held on what could be considered a reasonably free and fair basis. 

Independent, community-based election monitoring efforts set in motion by the Commission of Inquiry, supplemented by independent media and human rights groups reports, confirm that instead of seeking to implement the recommended United Nations reform measures to make the elections legitimate, the Hun Sen government did the opposite. They doubled and tripled down by imposing even harsher restrictions on civil society in order to assure that they would remain in power. They made effective political opposition and meaningful political choice impossible. They criminally prosecuted and jailed even more potential political opposition leaders and other critics of the government, including independent journalists. 

In short, the Hun Sen government thumbed its nose at the U.N. findings and recommendations and proceeded to crack down on civil society and make meaningful elections impossible. 

Where the Khmer and international community now find themselves, in consequence, is having to decide how to respond to this challenge. 

The answer is provided in no uncertain terms by the United Nations' findings. The results of an election that cannot under any circumstances be considered free, fair, and legitimate, cannot, and should not be accepted and recognized by the international community as valid. 

We must continue to put maximum pressure in every way we can on foreign governments, and on the Hun Sen government, to follow the course that the United Nations has set, by demanding that the meaningful and effective reform measures that the U.N. specified to be fully implemented so that civil society can exercise meaningful political choice, and so that free and fair elections become possible. 

Until that happens, recognition of the election results must be withheld. 

This hearing spells out more specifically what the U.N. found and required and what has to be done to return Cambodia to acceptable international standards. 

Where do we go from here? How do we deal with the reality that Hun Sen has chosen to ignore the United Nation’s mandates and findings and recommendations on how to bring human rights and rule of law back to Cambodia – how to make Cambodia’s civil society functional and effective once again? 

The United Nations has paved the way. They have told us, and Hun Sen, what needs to be done to make civil society and the political process workable. We need to follow that “Action Plan” of reform measures and use every available forum to demand that reforms be made. 

It should be clear by now. Hun Sen will not change by himself. He will do whatever he thinks necessary to retain power, even if it violates international law. 

What we must do is use every available public and international forum to make clear that his conduct is unacceptable. The United Nations finally has spoken out and made crystal clear what major reforms are necessary. We need to press forward with those demands, not just at the U.N., but at every international and public form available to us. Silence will not work. We need to rally and speak out forcefully, clearly, and frequently in support of the clear path toward meaningful and effective reform that the UN has set out for Cambodia.