A/HRC/21/35
incorporating a human rights perspective into a draft sub-decree on urbanization to the
Ministry, and plans to take part in further consultations.
37.
OHCHR continues to incorporate general principles on business and human rights
into its Land and Housing Rights Programme, and advocates for State responsibility in
relation to human rights abuses by third parties. In addition, OHCHR works with selected
businesses and professional associations to encourage them to apply human rights standards
to their activities. In December 2011, OHCHR launched a version in English and Khmer of
the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations
“Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework.4 During the reporting period, OHCHR
conducted training workshops for civil society organizations (including a briefing to
regional organizations at the ASEAN People’s Forum), technical staff members of the
United Nations, the Cambodia Human Rights Committee and members of Government
ministries on business and human rights (including differentiating it from corporate social
responsibility) and the application of the above-mentioned Guiding Principles on Business
and Human Rights to the Cambodian context.
38.
In May 2010, following the Government’s adoption of a circular on the resolution of
temporary settlements on illegally occupied land in urban areas, OHCHR began to support
technical assistance efforts for communities to map their territorial boundaries and basic
services and infrastructure needs, and to understand their tenure rights in the Cambodian
legal framework. During the reporting period, OHCHR continued to work with the
authorities, communities and development partners in Battambang Municipality to ensure
on-site upgrading and security of tenure.
39.
To help to protect the traditional livelihoods and culture of indigenous peoples,
OHCHR supports networks of Government, United Nations organizations, civil society and
communities to strengthen their capacity to use the domestic legal framework with regard
to communal land title. OHCHR provided financial and institutional support to seven
villages inhabited by the Phnong indigenous peoples in Bousra commune, Mondulkiri
province, and five villages inhabited by the Suoy indigenous peoples in Aoral district,
Kampong Speu province, undergoing registration as legal entities with the Government, to
enable them to apply for collective land titles in the future. OHCHR also monitors a project
whereby more than 800 Phnong families and 238 Suoy families protect themselves against
the threat of economic and other types of land concessions, in cooperation with
Government ministries, ILO and non-governmental organizations.
40.
Despite significant gains in registering indigenous communities for communal land
title, the exploitation of the land inhabited by indigenous peoples, including the granting of
land concessions, has outpaced the establishment of security of tenure for most
communities. OHCHR welcomes the issuance of communal land titles to three indigenous
communities in Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces, in December 2011.This significant
development demonstrated the commitment to upholding the rights of indigenous peoples
to land. Nevertheless, the lack of implementation of interim protective measures for those
communities, which are in the process of registration (a lengthy and complex legal process
dependent on donor resources), puts indigenous communities at particular risk of land
grabbing and of losing their livelihoods owing to land concessions and other development
projects.
41.
In the case of forcibly evicted communities, OHCHR continues to advocate for
planned resettlement, rather than the current practices of relocating communities to sites
lacking basic infrastructure and distant from livelihood opportunities, schools and health
4
See A/HRC/17/31.
11
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