A/HRC/12/40 page 5 Many national and international civil society organizations are operating in Cambodia in all sorts of areas of human activity; they support, often substitute for, but also scrutinize governmental activity. There are various media organizations, both print and radio, offering their services to the people in both Khmer and foreign languages. 12. Since 1993, the people have enjoyed an unprecedented degree of freedom of assembly, expression and movement, although people need by law to seek permission to hold public demonstrations, which is sometimes refused on unspecified security grounds, and arbitrary restrictions on travel or holding meetings have sometimes been imposed. The Government has responded positively to some of the recommendations made by former Special Representatives of the Secretary-General. One such example was the removal of prison sentences as a sanction for criminal defamation in 2006. 13. The Government has also faced the complex issue of land ownership, including by making an effort to improve land tenure security for the population. An ambitious project of land titling is under way in mostly rural areas. I was also pleased to see that noteworthy achievements had been made by the Royal Government in combating trafficking in human beings, especially women and children, for purposes of sexual exploitation by prosecuting offenders of the law against trafficking. Equally positive was the measure taken by the Government to close down a number of gambling places, although major casinos have remained opened. Efforts of the Government to combat HIV/AIDS have been widely commended, as have the mine removal efforts. 14. The Government has also taken a number of other progressive measures. One such measure was a 2006 law designed to combat domestic violence, especially against women. Measures such as these seem to have had an encouraging impact on the society. The Government has enhanced its engagement with the United Nations human rights treaty bodies. The National Assembly has passed a law recently to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The Ministries of the Interior, Justice and Social Affairs have also engaged in a constructive dialogue with the Cambodia Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on prison, judicial and other areas of reform. 15. In sum, Cambodia has made remarkable progress over the last three decades, the last two of which with the help of the international community and the United Nations in promoting human rights and democratizing the system of governance. A country which was brought back from the ashes of a prolonged conflict not long ago is now enjoying high economic growth and relative political stability and a great deal of credit for these achievements goes to the leaders in Government. B. Challenges 16. In spite of these achievements, one of the major challenges still remaining for the Government is the ability to strike a balance between economic development and human rights protection, and it is one of the areas to which the Government needs to devote serious attention while seeking the help of the international community, including the United Nations human rights machinery.