A/HRC/18/46 parties.1 He was encouraged by their response to some of the issues that he raised. The Special Rapporteur was made aware of the work carried out by both houses of Parliament in holding the executive to account and to protect and promote human rights in the country. He appreciates some of the new laws enacted by Parliament to this effect. The Special Rapporteur has identified a number of shortcomings in the functioning of Parliament and has made recommendations to address them in the concluding section of this report. 6. Separately, the Special Rapporteur had meetings with the United Nations Country Team and its members, donor organizations, and diplomats, and visited the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, where he met with the President and Vice President of the Court’s judicial plenary shortly before the close of its seventh session. He also met with victims of human rights violations, including indigenous groups and communities affected by land evictions in the recent past and an individual who had been charged with defamation, and interacted with representatives of trade unions; civil society organizations working in the area of human rights, such as land rights and freedom of expression, and on parliamentary reform; and private citizens. He visited sites in Kampong Chhnang, Boeung Kok Lake and Khan Sen Sok where families are facing the threat of eviction or have been forcibly removed. III. Recent developments in human rights 7. While the general situation of human rights has progressed in some areas, it has not improved much in others. A. Land and housing rights 8. Disputes linked to land continue to have an impact on the lives of many people in the country, especially those who are poor, marginalized and left without an effective mechanism to address their grievances. While the Government is developing a number of land management, housing and relocation policies, progress has been slow. Unresolved land disputes, many of them marred by corruption, have led to ongoing clashes among the Government, civil society and communities under threat of forced eviction and have been the cause of several outbreaks of violence in recent months. 9. The judiciary has not been effective in upholding the rights of many people affected by a lack of land title. The existing mechanisms for land disputes currently in place, such as the cadastral commissions and the National Authority for Land Dispute Resolution, are reportedly lacking in resources and not effective in upholding the rights of small landholders, and some communities report that they favour non-judicial mechanisms due to a lack of faith in the courts and the existing land-dispute systems currently in place. During the reporting period, numerous land disputes escalated and a large number of people were evicted from their land or were faced with the threat of forced eviction, after having exhausted legal remedies to peacefully settle the dispute or obtain a fair settlement. 10. At least 3,000 to 4,000 families living in the Boeung Kok Lake area have been evicted or face the threat of forced eviction from their homes since the Government granted a 99-year lease to Shukaku, Inc. for development of the land. Intimidation and threats were used against villagers to coerce them into accepting inadequate compensation or resettlement outside Phnom Penh, despite many villagers having strong claims to formal 1 The Special Rapporteur has unfortunately not had the opportunity to meet with the Minister of Justice thus far. 5