A/HRC/45/51 I. Introduction 1. Submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 42/37, the present report contains an update on the situation of human rights in Cambodia. During the period under review (June 2019–June 2020), the Special Rapporteur continued to monitor the human rights situation in Cambodia. Owing to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and other operational reasons related to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Special Rapporteur was not able to undertake any field missions after the renewal of her mandate in September 2019. The Government of Cambodia could not accommodate proposed mission dates in the last quarter of 2019. A scheduled visit in April 2020 was postponed, at the request of the Government, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 24 June, the Government noted that a proposed rescheduled mission in July was not viable owing to the ongoing pandemic; videoconferencing alternatives have been scheduled. In addition, all official missions have been prohibited in the current circumstances. 2. The Special Rapporteur collected information pertaining to the human rights situation in Cambodia through information received from and documents published by the Government; reports issued by United Nations agencies in Cambodia; and information received from international non-governmental organizations, civil society and other stakeholders. The Special Rapporteur has endeavoured to gather, corroborate and verify information, noting that field missions were not possible under the exceptional circumstances. Detailed comments on the present report, technical information and statistical updates have been provided by the Government of Cambodia. 3. The Special Rapporteur remains encouraged by the Government’s willingness to respond to formal communications issued by the Special Rapporteur and thematic mandate holders and to annual reports, and welcomes these opportunities for increasing dialogue and deepening understanding. II. Context 4. During the interactive dialogue in September 2019, many States raised the issue of civic and democratic space in the country. Accordingly, this issue will be addressed first. 5. Civic and democratic space has continued to shrink in Cambodia, with a lack of any significant shift towards political reconciliation and restoration of civil and political rights. Cambodia remains, in effect, a one-party State with the ruling party, the Cambodian People’s Party, holding all lower National Assembly seats and virtually all Senate seats. The Cambodian People’s Party also holds most of the local-level councillor positions, following the 2017 Supreme Court decision, which dissolved the former opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party. The National Election Committee then redistributed the seats the Cambodia National Rescue Party had won in the June 2017 commune elections in accordance with a recently adopted law.1 6. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the release of Kem Sokha, former president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, from de facto house arrest in November 2019. He was arrested and detained in September 2017 and held until September 2018, when he began living under de facto house arrest, subject to a range of court-imposed restrictions.2 His trial commenced in January 2020 on charges of treason and conspiracy with foreign States, which carries a custodial sentence of 15 to 30 years if convicted by the court. On 17 January 2020, the Special Rapporteur, together with other special procedure mandate holders, expressed concern over the trial, noting that the entire criminal process had been beset by irregularities. 3 The trial was suspended indefinitely in March as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 1 2 3 See A/HRC/39/73/Add.1. OHCHR, communication AL KHM 3/2019, dated 25 June 2019. Available at http://spcommreports.ohchr.org. www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25472&LangID=E. 3