Astrid Thors, LI vice president and chairperson of Human Rights Committee, made an oral statement during the 57th session of United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Cambodia. She advocated for the Cambodian opposition, activists, and arbitrarily detained individuals that remain in prison.
Thors, together with Cambodian partners and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom’s (FNF) Human Rights Hub in Geneva, also conducted a separate meeting with Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia. The discussion covered the recent political and human rights developments in Cambodia noting the situation of expats, and their family members who stayed in the country.
On the same day, Ms Thors joined a side event “Implementing UPR Recommendations: Roadmap for a Better Cambodia” as a speaker. The side event was organised by the FNF’s Human Rights Hub in partnership with LI and Khmer Movement for Democracy, a coalition of Cambodian activists. It aimed to highlight the main outcomes of the UPR recommendations for Cambodia, and foster a comprehensive dialogue on their implementation, with a particular focus on democratic development, human rights, civil and political rights, the role of women and youth, among others. The event also placed special emphasis on environmental rights violations, from mass deforestation, to the recent crackdown on environmental rights defenders.
Intervention on behalf of Liberal International (LI)
By Astrid Thors, Chair of LI’s Human Rights Committee
The UN Human Rights Council Meeting 7.10.2024
“Mr/ Mrs chairperson, ladies and gentleman,
First of all I want to thank the SR, Professor Muntharborn for his report and the intervention today and the well founded recommendations
His description of the situation in the country is very accurate: a family-based power shift is prolonging the monopoly of power that has undermined democratic aspirations
As the rapporteur says, before the 2023 national elections the registration of the Candlelight Party for the elections was turned down by the authorities under questionable circumstances. We fully subscribe to this and would add that the situation continues to deteriorate after the change of the prime minister.
The opposition can now solely focus on survival amidst increasing threats. The ruling party has intensified its campaign of harassment and intimidation against opposition members, having in mind the 2027 local elections.
The same applies to many human rights defenders, environmental activists and journalists, a recent example is the detention of journalist Mech Dara on so called “incitement”. His crime is that he has written about human rights, the environment and corruption.
Among so many detained, LI must mention the 27 year sentence of Kem Sokha in March 2023 which is one of the appalling examples of gross human rights violations as is the continued detention of Theary Seng despite the requests of the UN working group on Arbitrary detention (convicted 2022, June).”
