A/HRC/27/70 Phnom Penh Municipality, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation stating that demonstrations by marches or public rallies, including at Freedom Park, would no longer be allowed until public security and order was restored. At the time of writing, Freedom Park remained surrounded by razor wire and metal barricades, preventing access to the area from all sides. 18. While the Special Rapporteur condemned the violence used by some demonstrators, the actions of the authorities in suppressing the protests in the first week of January 2014 constituted a disproportionate response. They marked a worrying change in policy from a tolerant to a repressive response to public protests. Those events and the treatment of the 23 individuals detained became further motivation for civil society organizations and have been internationally condemned. 19. The Special Rapporteur regrets that no thorough, credible and independent investigation has yet been carried out into the incidents, adding to the long list of cases in which perpetrators of violence have not been brought to justice. Impunity remains a serious concern in Cambodia. The Government has the obligation to ensure that any use of force meets the tests of necessity, legality and proportionality, to explain how it meets those tests, and to ensure that perpetrators of violence are held accountable. 20. The lack of action against the members of the security forces who opened fire on the crowds or otherwise committed acts of violence in the incidents described above contrasts with the speed of proceedings against the individuals not members of the forces whom the authorities charged with violence. Those arrested in connection with the incidents were charged within days; all but two were convicted despite the lack of any material evidence proving their direct involvement in acts of violence. In the case of the 25 charged in relation to the events of 12 November 2013 and 2 and 3 January 2014, the Special Rapporteur welcomed their release but noted with concern the faulty legal proceedings that led to their convictions. 21. The Special Rapporteur communicated his concern at the ban on demonstrations during his mission in January, as well as in a follow-up allegation letter dated 17 February 2014, that the Government had not clarified the legal basis and justification for such a ban. The right of peaceful assembly is protected under article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Cambodia is a party. Under article 4 of the Covenant, measures derogating from obligations set out therein can only be taken to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, and only in time of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation and the existence of which is officially proclaimed. The Special Rapporteur has not seen an official proclamation of a public emergency of such gravity that it threatens the life of the nation. At the time of drafting, despite public pronouncements to the contrary, the ban remained in force, although some demonstrations have selectively been allowed to proceed. The environment is therefore one of uncertainty and arbitrariness. 22. As the ban continued with no signs of being lifted, members of the opposition decided to move directly on Freedom Park. For several weeks during the first half of 2014, CNRP member Mu Sochua visited the Park daily and was prevented from entering it by military police. On 15 July 2014, she and other CNRP Members of Parliament elect gathered there with several hundred supporters to call for a lifting of the ban. A peaceful show of defiance through a banner reading “Free the Freedom Park” being placed on the barbed wire, to which district security guards reacted by beating protesters. When they retreated, several guards who became isolated among the protesters were themselves beaten, some severely. Four opposition Members of Parliament elect and one supporter were arrested that day, and three more Members of Parliament elect were arrested in the days that followed. Despite the guards’ conduct, which the Special Rapporteur condemns, 7