A/HRC/33/39 In other cases, parliamentary immunity was summarily lifted to allow prosecution to proceed. One opposition Member of Parliament has been in pretrial detention since August 2015, another since April 2016. The President of the CNRP saw his status as a Member of Parliament rescinded by the National Assembly in November, and thereafter again went into self-imposed exile. The Vice-President of the CNRP had his role as Vice-President of the National Assembly revoked in October; at the end of the period under review, he had been issued with five summons for questioning, to which he has not responded. Also at the end of the period under review, 18 opposition officials or supporters, including the two Members of Parliament, were still being detained on charges or convictions of insurrection, forgery or incitement to commit a felony, in connection with a demonstration that turned violent in July 2014, and to border issues between Cambodia and Viet Nam. 8. OHCHR proceeded with a range of technical cooperation activities with the judiciary, the governmental Cambodian Human Rights Committee, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Rural Development and other duty-bearers, and also with civil society organizations and community-based organizations. 9. The newly constituted National Election Committee, which is composed of equal numbers of CNRP and CPP members and one independent member, embarked upon the preparations for the 2017 communal and 2018 National Assembly elections, commencing with the establishment of a new voter registry. With significant assistance from the European Union and Japan, a new biometric voter identification system was introduced. 10. The political climate once again deteriorated in October, when two CNRP Members of Parliament were brutally beaten outside the National Assembly. Following a call by the Prime Minister for the individuals responsible to come forward, three members of his bodyguard unit, who had been identified on social media, confessed and were convicted to a year of imprisonment. 11. Another opposition official and six human rights workers from the Cambodian Association for Human Rights and Development (ADHOC) and Silaka, both nongovernmental organizations, a United Nations staff member of OHCHR Cambodia, and the Deputy Secretary-General of the National Election Committee and former member of ADHOC, were summoned by the Anti-Corruption Unit for questioning about the alleged attempt to persuade a woman, allegedly involved in an extramarital affair with the Deputy President of the CNRP, to lie to the authorities about their relationship. The four staff members of ADHOC, the committee official and the OHCHR official were charged with bribery of a witness or with being complicit in bribery. While the OHCHR official, being a staff member of the United Nations, is covered by the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations and thus has not been apprehended, the other five individuals charged were placed in pretrial detention. The pursuit of prominent human rights activists by the Anti-Corruption Unit and the courts is reportedly continuing against staff members of other human rights organizations. 12. The ban on large-scale demonstrations announced in January 2014 continued to be applied. Housing and land disputes continued to be the cause of most protests and violations in the field of economic, social and cultural rights. Increased political tensions led to a tightening of the democratic space, and repeated infringements on the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly and movement. 13. OHCHR followed closely the above-mentioned incidents, including cases relating to housing, land and indigenous rights, ensuing protests, and the responses to them involving the use of force, the disruption of peaceful assemblies and resulting cases of apprehension and arrest by the police. OHCHR sought remedial actions from duty-bearers, monitored trials and the treatment of those held in detention, and advocated for the establishment or strengthening of national mechanisms and institutions for the protection of human rights. 3