A/HRC/18/46 Government and 90 per cent of the responses have come after more than a month. Ministers rarely attend the meetings in Parliament to answer questions from Members of Parliament. The Members of Parliament belonging to the main party in opposition and some other minority parties are virtually cut off from the law-making process. The Cambodian People’s Party, with its large majority in the National Assembly, has a tendency to ignore the political role of other parties. The opposition party and many other minority parties complain that they are treated by the ruling party as an enemy of the State rather than as political partners with differing views. 47. Although the Constitution requires a secret ballot for important decisions in Parliament, most important decisions in the National Assembly are taken on the basis of bloc voting and by show of hands so that the Government can identify the people voting against any of its motions. The individual members of Parliament might therefore lack the courage to vote independently or against proposals tabled by the Government. 48. When the Cambodian People’s Party won a two-thirds majority at the last general election, the National Assembly adopted new internal rules in September 2008 further narrowing the scope of effective participation in Parliament by the opposition and other minority parties. For instance, articles 48 and 55 of the rules require Members of Parliament to sit as a group of 10 and elect their own leader and deputy leader. This means that Members of Parliament from minority parties with fewer than 10 seats must join a group with representatives of other political parties. 49. Accordingly, an individual Member of Parliament cannot speak in Parliament without going through a group leader and without getting the permission to do so from the President of the National Assembly. These rules have the effect of denying Members of Parliament belonging to minority parties with fewer than 10 seats any meaningful role in Parliament and go beyond the scope of parliamentary procedures outlined in article 96 of the Constitution. For instance, currently the Human Rights Party has only three members in Parliament. Since they have not joined any group because they wish to retain their independence, they have no opportunity to function as normal Members of Parliament in parliamentary debate. For the reasons outlined above, the role of Parliament has been limited in overseeing the work of the executive. D. Protecting the freedom of speech of Members of Parliament 50. Parliament is the soul of democracy. For democracy to work properly, all individual Members of Parliament should be able to exercise their freedom of speech in the course of discharging their official duties. It is a fundamental condition for a Member of Parliament to be able to speak his or her mind without fear. Democracy is about dialogue and debate on all issues of national importance, and this is especially so in the case of the parliament, which by definition is a chamber where members can debate freely any issues of national importance. It is for this reason that they have been accorded parliamentary immunity. However, some of the current internal rules of procedure of the National Assembly are not conducive to enabling all individual members to enjoy their freedom of speech when holding the executive to account and defending the rights of the people that they represent. In the recent past, the scope for Members of Parliament in Cambodia to participate in parliamentary debate has been limited and the parliamentary immunity of a number of Members of Parliament has been lifted, even for speaking out on issues of national importance. Further, many of these members have not been given an opportunity to make a representation in their defence, which goes against the basic principles of natural justice. A properly functioning democracy requires effective checks on the executive and on the majority. 14