A/HRC/15/47 I. Introduction 1. This report was prepared pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 12/25 of 2 October 2009. It describes the activities of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Cambodia from June 2009 to June 2010. 2. During this period, the OHCHR programme of cooperation with the Government, civil society and the development community focused on the protection of rights related to land and housing, support for legal and judicial reform, correctional reform, and the protection of fundamental freedoms and development of civil society. It has continued to do so in a spirit of constructive dialogue which consists of discussing issues of concern directly with the relevant authorities, to draw their attention to applicable human rights standards, to explore possible solutions with them and to provide assistance to implement these. This approach builds on working relationships based on mutual confidence, and the search for durable solutions. In this spirit, OHCHR has been implementing its protection mandate within its technical cooperation programme. It has also drawn public attention to certain issues deemed critical, or when avenues for dialogue have been exhausted or proved ineffective. Human rights cooperation is complex and sensitive. It requires tact, dialogue, mutual understanding, the acknowledgement of issues and a willingness to address them. 3. The Office welcomed the exemplary cooperation of the Government with United Nations human rights mechanisms. In January 2010, it extended the OHCHR Memorandum of Understanding for another two years, thus acknowledging the value of the Office’s cooperation. It cooperated closely with the new Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia, who has visited the country three times since June 2009 and will be submitting his second report to the Human Rights Council in September 2010. The Government fully cooperated with the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture, which carried out its first mission in the country in December 2009. It presented its human rights record before the Universal Periodic Review (1 December 2009) of the Human Rights Council and accepted all the recommendations resulting from the process. Noteworthy also is the strengthened cooperation between OHCHR and the Cambodian Government’s Human Rights Committee (CHRC) on treaty reporting, which resulted in the Government’s clearing nearly all its pending reports to the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies. 4. Since June 2009, important steps that will impact on human rights have been taken to strengthen the country’s legal and institutional framework: adoption of the Penal Code, the Law on Peaceful Demonstrations, the Law on Expropriation, the Anti-Corruption Law, a Housing Rights Policy and a circular to regulate evictions; drafting of a new correctional law and a law on a national human rights institution; and steps towards developing a national mechanism to prevent torture. The Office welcomed these initiatives, which, in the course of their development, it has actively sought to bring closer to human rights standards. It also welcomed the completion of the first trial in November 2009 by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). 5. During the same period, however, many poor rural and urban communities, including minority peoples in north-eastern provinces, continued to be dispossessed of their lands with little or no remedy, the political space for critical debate was further eroded due to threats of, or the abusive use of, defamation, disinformation and incitement lawsuits, the reform of the correctional system faced enormous pressure, and the judiciary serious challenges to the effective delivery of justice. 3