A/HRC/42/31 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 36/32. In it the Secretary-General outlines the role and achievements of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in assisting the Government and the people of Cambodia in the promotion and protection of human rights from 1 January 2018 to 31 May 2019. It provides an update of the report of the Secretary-General (A/HRC/37/64) presented to the thirty-seventh session of the Council on the same subject. 2. Throughout the reporting period, OHCHR proceeded with technical cooperation activities with the judiciary, the Supreme Council of the Magistracy, the governmental Cambodian Human Rights Committee, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Rural Development, the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction and other governmental actors, civil society and other actors. It continued monitoring the human rights environment, including land and housing rights, the right to participation, fundamental freedoms, trials and places of detention. On 22 October 2018, in the presence of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Prime Minister of Cambodia and the Deputy Prime Minister with the portfolio of Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Government and OHCHR renewed the Memorandum of Understanding for the implementation of a technical cooperation programme on human rights for the period 2019–2020. 3. OHCHR also continued working closely with the United Nations system in Cambodia to support the mainstreaming of human rights within the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks 2016–2018 and 2019–2023, chairing the human rights theme group and supporting joint actions, including through media, to advance human rights in Cambodia. II. Enhancing participation and protecting civic space 4. For much of 2018, national and subnational authorities enforced the October 2017 directive of the Ministry of Interior requiring civil society organizations to give three days’ notice prior to planned activities. In February 2018, Parliament enacted a series of amendments to the Constitution and the Criminal Code, including a lèse majesté provision. The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression noted in a statement on 20 February 2018 that “lèse majesté provisions are incompatible with Cambodia’s obligations under international human rights law, as they criminalize the legitimate exercise of freedom of speech”.1 5. On 8 April 2018, Sam Rainsy, one of the leaders of the former main opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, in self-imposed exile since 2015, shared a video on Facebook calling on Cambodians to boycott the national elections. On 8 May, the Chair of the National Election Committee wrote to the Ministry of Interior asking for legal action on the grounds that the boycott appeal was affecting public order and national security by obstructing eligible voters from casting their ballot. The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia referred to Human Rights Committee general comment No. 25 (1996) on participation in public affairs and the right to vote, noting that “restrictions on calls for a boycott of a non-compulsory vote are inconsistent with the right to freedom of expression as such restrictions impede political debate” (A/HRC/39/73/Add.1, para. 57). 6. On 19 April 2018, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention rendered an opinion that the detention of Kem Sokha, leader of the former Cambodia National Rescue Party arrested for alleged “treason” in September 2017, was arbitrary (A/HRC/WGAD/2018/9). 1 2 See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22674&LangID=E.