Letter To UN Special Rapporteur Before In-Country Visit
Morton Sklar
Legal Counsel, Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia
The Commission of Inquiry for Cambodia and the Khmer community welcomes and supports your “first official visit to Cambodia from 15 to 26 August,” and we appreciate the opportunity to provide information and input for your in-country human rights assessment.
As we do not need to tell you, your in-country assessment takes on special significance in the context of the upcoming national elections scheduled to take place in July of 2023. The United Nations has already gone to great pains in its most recent report on Cambodia, “The State of Press Freedom in Cambodia,” issued on 3 August, to make crystal clear that the extensive human rights abuses that the Hun Sen government has been engaging in on an increasingly harsh and extensive basis, must be viewed in the context of how they impact the upcoming national elections. As “The State of Press Freedom” report points out, many of the most serious abuses, including declaring the leading political opposition party illegal, arresting and criminally prosecuting leaders and members of the opposition on a mass trial basis, and closing down independent media outlets and prosecuting independent journalists, have been done with the specific purpose of eliminating freedom of expression and criticism of the government, so as to control the election results, and assure that the Hun Sen government remains in power on an uncontested basis.
We trust that this latest set of UN findings and concerns as set out in their 3 August report is a matter that will be given prominent attention in your on-site assessment and fact-gathering efforts. In particular, we hope you will point out frequently, as the “State of Press Freedom in Cambodia” report has done in very explicit terms, that a free and fair election, and a meaningful expression of the Khmer community’s political choices, is impossible unless the major opposition political party is allowed to operate and to participate in the electoral process on an unencumbered basis, and unless its leaders and members of the independent media are freed from prison and from criminal prosecutions on a mass basis.
Unless these actions are taken, the question must be asked: “Why should the Khmer people and international community of nations accept and recognize the results of an election that is held without free and fair representation, and without civil society’s active and unrestricted participation. We hope you will pose this question frequently during your in-country visit and assessment, and demand that the human rights situation be improved on a dramatic basis in order for the results of the upcoming elections to be taken seriously.
We also hope that you will make a special effort to contact us when you return from Cambodia, to engage in further useful dialogue and information exchange with us on these highly important matters as the national election approaches.