A/HRC/45/51 of June 2020, there were 39, 376 prisoners across the 29 prisons. Only an estimated 27 per cent of the prison population have received final verdicts and while a further 37 per cent have been convicted in first instance but are still awaiting the outcome of their appeals, which leaves 35 per cent of the incarcerated population in pretrial detention. This is not dissimilar to previous years. 42. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the reform initiatives introduced by the new Minister of Justice in May 2020, in particular to reduce the backlog of cases at courts of first instance across the country, and she offers her assistance in pursuing the administration of justice reforms. She is pleased to learn of the Ministry’s intention to clear 50 to 70 per cent of the nearly 39,000 cases awaiting review by the country’s courts of first instance in six months. 42 This could alleviate prison overcrowding and, assuming all due process is followed, strengthen compliance with the right to a fair trial within a reasonable time and reduce the numbers in pretrial detention. 2. Ethnic Vietnamese 43. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the 1 July 2019 instruction issued by the Ministry of Interior allowing children from parents legally registered as permanent residents to obtain birth certificates. The instruction also asks the local authorities to deliver residence books, death certificates and any other certificate clearly stating the nationality. If duly implemented, this can be a step towards ensuring access to naturalized citizenship for ethnic Vietnamese living in Cambodia. The Special Rapporteur also notes progress in issuing birth registration for ethnic Vietnamese children, who had been previously denied access to public schools as they could not produce the mandatory birth certificates. She encourages the authorities to fully implement the instruction. 44. In 2020, the Ministry of Interior announced the creation of a working group to draft a new immigration law to replace the 1994 law. The Special Rapporteur hopes that any new law would address the shortcomings of existing procedures. 45. As noted previously by the Special Rapporteur,43 the Tonle Sap floating communities in Kampong Chhnang continue to be affected by relocation plans, undertaken to conserve biodiversity and the environment of the Tonle Sap Lake. In Kampong Chhnang Province, following joint advocacy from the OHCHR country office in Cambodia and the Special Rapporteur, the provincial authorities engaged in a process to identify land and delimited plots to relocate around 10,000 people, both Khmer and ethnic Vietnamese, from floating villages. Such initiatives must be commended. However, there continue to be variations in providing equal access of services to floating ethnic Vietnamese communities. 46. Ethnic Vietnamese communities remain in a situation of vulnerability. Many ethnic Vietnamese children drop out of school and are subject to discrimination by their Cambodian peers and their teachers due to their ethnic origin and their lack of proficiency in the Khmer language. Thereafter, their employment opportunities may be limited by not having Cambodian identity documents and/or owing to their lack of Khmer language skills. IV. Human rights and the COVID-19 response 47. The COVID-19 pandemic reached Cambodia, and there is evidence of a coordinated government response to the threat. Article 72 of the Constitution guarantees the health of the people, a right also accepted in several ratified international human rights treaties, not least the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Extensive guidance on a rights-based approach to leading during the pandemic is available from the special 42 43 10 www.akp.gov.kh/post/detail/31625; additional information on administration of justice, lengthy pretrial detention and case backlog is contained on p. 4 of the comments received from the Government. A/HRC/42/60.