A/HRC/42/60
ensuring equal access to justice for all. Time, money, distance and a lack of trust in the
judiciary impedes people from seeking justice through formal mechanisms. The provision
of legal aid remains limited, although progress has been achieved through increased
funding, improved coordination between the Ministry of Justice and the Bar Association,
the presence of at least two lawyers in each province and the drafting of the country’s first
legal aid policy. In May 2019, the Special Rapporteur was informed by the Minister of
Justice that the Prime Minister had privately funded an additional group of lawyers dealing
primarily with women and women’s issues to provide legal aid for women. Further action
should be taken to ensure the quality of the legal assistance provided, streamline and ensure
consistency in the provision of legal assistance, guarantee the presence of lawyers beyond
the trial stage and ensure that legal aid lawyers receive specialized training and are
adequately remunerated (the Minister of Justice reports that many work pro bono). Bringing
justice closer to people through judicial service centres and regional appeal courts could
also help. While these are being built, perhaps mobile courts could be considered. They
have functioned well in other countries, not least in developing countries in Africa.
67.
Ensuring justice is child-, gender- and disability-sensitive is important, not least
when addressing victims of violence and trafficking related to Sustainable Development
Goals 16 and 5. Access to justice through the lens of the principle of leaving no one behind
highlights the challenges. The Special Rapporteur has previously noted the problem of
recourse to informal solutions in instances of violence against women (A/HRC/33/62,
paras. 23–25). Specific individuals and groups, including persons with disabilities, continue
to face barriers in accessing justice, due to the lack of physical and other accessibility
measures in place. Although progress has been made in Cambodia in the past few decades,
there is a need for further action to combat structural issues of discrimination, inequality
and exclusion in accessing justice; ensure that judicial institutions are physically and
financially accessible; and create an enabling environment for persons to approach the
justice system, especially for those who are more vulnerable. As a related matter, the
Special Rapporteur notes that the Law on Juvenile Justice is still being rolled out and urges
that it be adequately resourced and that all law enforcement officers are fully trained to
support implementation of the Law.
68.
Accountability for the Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals will depend to a
significant degree on the quality and availability of data to measure implementation. Those
will be needed to measure implementation of the Goals and understand how those
responsible for the implementation are performing. However, measuring implementation of
the Cambodian Goals goes beyond traditional notions of measurement. In particular data
disaggregation is important. Data collection and analysis should move away from
concentrating on national averages and incorporate data on those most left behind so as to
identify underlying disparities. That will require information about personal characteristics
(such as ethnicity and gender) and other relevant information (such as location) to be
collected. Given the difficulty of reaching some individuals and groups at risk of being left
behind, the use of civil society data can be a useful supplement to official data sets, such as
the national census of March 2019 and the demographic health survey.
69.
The Special Rapporteur highlights the challenges of representative sampling (for
example in the demographic and health survey) when data disaggregation is necessary.
Data disaggregation should be incorporated into the planning and design stage of data
collection programmes. Stratified sampling would allow diverse characteristics to be
considered separately for identifying trends and making comparisons. That can better
ensure that those at risk of being left behind are identified and their development
monitored.
70.
Finally, public reporting on implementation of the Cambodian Sustainable
Development Goals can be an important means of promoting transparency in their
implementation and strengthening accountability. During the Special Rapporteur’s mission
in April and May 2019, the Government was preparing for its voluntary national review on
its implementation plan for the Sustainable Development Goals for the July session of the
high-level political forum in New York. The Special Rapporteur notes that reporting under
the voluntary national review is at the discretion of Member States, so the Government’s
decision to submit a report is welcome. The General Directorate of Planning in the Ministry
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