Seyla Nhean on Khmer Community Advocacy for the National Election of the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia, 22 July 2023

Two years ago, when the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia initiative was getting started, Brad Adams, then serving as Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, convened and led what he called an “information sharing and strategic planning discussion” with a wide variety of Khmer groups and leaders. The key point that Brad Adams made, and that emerged as the most important conclusion of that session, was that “meaningful and effective progress” on Cambodia’s long-standing and far-ranging human rights and rule of law problems could not be made – that Hun Sen’s autocratic and highly repressive system would continue in place – unless the Khmer community became a stronger voice, and a more active and effective advocate for meaningful reform, at the international level. 

Shortly thereafter, the United Nations, in strong and crystal-clear language that was highly unusual for the UN, made very similar findings. A half dozen UN officials and agencies at the highest level issued a series of reports and statements indicating in the strongest terms that the scheduled national elections of 2023 could not be considered or treated as fair, free, or legitimate unless major reforms that the UN identified in very specific terms were implemented by the Hun Sen government that would meaningfully reduce the human rights and democracy abuses that were taking place throughout civil society on a thorough going basis. 

Perhaps because of these two important messages, something happened in April to suggest that the Khmer community understood that if meaningful and effective change was to take place in Cambodia – if the Khmer people were to be able to exercise their vote and participate in the political and electoral process in a free and fair way – they had to take up Brad Adams’ and the United Nations’ challenge and find new and more effective ways to challenge Hun Sen’s abusive and authoritarian policies on the world stage. In Lowell, Massachusetts, the Khmer community organized a massive and successful protest against a City councilman’s proposal to connect Lowell with a Cambodian city in a “Sister City” arrangement that would have given de facto recognition and support to Hun Sen’s authoritarian control of Cambodia’s political process and the pre-determined elections.   

That was only one of several new advocacy efforts that the Khmer community initiated to make their voice heard more forcefully to challenge Hun Sen’s human rights abuses, and his authoritarian control over the national elections, so as to remain in power indefinitely by eliminating the political opposition, putting critics and independent journalists in jail, and making it impossible for members of civil society to exercise their free speech and free assembly rights. A new initiative was started called the Khmer “Urgent Action Case Alert System,” that uses the Amnesty International model to provide Khmer community members a way to protest the Mass Criminal Trials and other arrests and criminal prosecutions that Hun Sen has been using on an increasing basis to silence and punish his critics and other political opposition leaders. Now, for the first time, individual members of the Khmer community have a simple means available to them to express their views in support of victims of abuse and prisoners of conscience. 

The Kem Sokha case is the perfect symbolic model of how the Khmer community can use the newly formed Khmer Urgent Action Case Alert System to give its members an effective way, and voice, for speaking out in defense and in support of the victims of the most egregious forms of abuse and persecution.  

As you well know, just a few weeks ago Kem Sokha received a 27-year criminal sentence, essentially ending his political career, for doing no more than offering a political alternative to Hun Sen. The Urgent Action Case Alert System gives members of the Khmer community a simple and direct way to challenge this atrocity of justice, and to come to Kem Sokha’s assistance. 

In addition, through the Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia and other advocacy groups, the Khmer community:  

1. Organize a grassroots monitoring effort to assess whether the UN’s Action Plan of Reform was being implemented; and, 

2. developed an action and advocacy plan that identified a number of specific strategies for challenging the legitimacy of Hun Sen’s pre-determined elections, and other major human rights violations and abuses. These include:   

3. Calling for suspension of the rigged national elections unless and until positive movement to implement the reform measures that the United Nations specifically proposed could be established; 

4. Boycotting the elections until the UN and the international community can certify them as free and fair; 

5. Imposing a trade and tourism boycott on Cambodia, and imposing other forms of economic sanctions on key companies and Cambodian officials benefiting from Hun Sen’s abusive policies; and, 

6. Increasing the Khmer community’s voice and advocacy presence with the key United Nations, EU agencies, and foreign governments dealing with Cambodia, starting with the United Nations’ Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Compliance Review session on Cambodia scheduled for April of 2024.   

With these new tools and plans in place, and with the stronger and clearer support being provided by the United Nations, the Khmer community, as the very positive experience in Lowell has demonstrated, now has the ability to make its voice heard in important new ways on the international stage. Will this be enough to produce the “meaningful and effective change” that Brad Adams’ strategic planning meeting called for two years ago? Not by itself. Meaningful progress against major and long-lasting human rights and authoritarian abuses of the kind that Hun Sen has been imposing cannot be achieved overnight or by any one single advocacy effort. There is no single “magic bullet” that can cure major abuses. What it takes to make meaningful progress and produce effective change is the type of coordinated, sustained advocacy effort that puts pressure on the Hun Sen government in a more meaningful way. The United Nations’ “Action Plan of Reform Measures,” along with their strongly worded and high-level series of reports and statements on Cambodia is a hugely important first step in that direction. So are the new set of advocacy initiatives that the Khmer community now has undertaken.  

The Khmer community understands the sad reality that Hun Sen has solidified his authoritarian power by thoroughly taking control of the political process, and by closing down any and all competing voices in civil society. That is the bad news. But the good news is that with the United Nations finally speaking out forcefully and clearly to challenge Hun Sen’s abuses and his false claim of free elections, the Khmer community has new partners and new opportunities for seeking change. Together with the new Urgent Action Network and the agenda of advocacy actions to achieve positive reform, the Khmer community now has a new set of tools and opportunities that can help to bring “effective and meaningful change” within reach. Let’s be sure to use these new tools and opportunities to make a difference. Let’s carry through in a sustained and effective way with the plan for advocacy actions that has been adopted.   

A strong indicator that these new tools and opportunities are working and can produce meaningful change is that Hun Sen himself responded directly community after its call that the election be boycotted based on the UN findings. This indicates that the new path that we are taking is working and that we can make an effective difference. 

If we are to truly make a meaningful and effective difference, and help produce meaningful change in Cambodia, we must build on these beginnings, and carry through with these new advocacy initiatives in a forceful, sustained and coordinated way with the United Nations and other advocacy partners, starting with the United Nations’ April, 2024 compliance review of Cambodia. We need to use, every voice — every opportunity — every forum available to us, to challenge Hun Sen’s abuses, and develop the international partnerships and supports that can help us demand the type of “meaningful and effective change” that Brad Adams set us on a path towards two years ago.