A/HRC/42/60 IV. Human rights considerations in implementing the Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals A. Non-discrimination and equality 32. In the Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals Framework, the Government notes “the principle of leaving no one behind and the need to address goals and areas or population groups, which lag others is a foremost consideration” and that “going forward, emerging disparities and inequities will be a key marker in identifying priorities.” The Government also notes that “unfinished business” under the Cambodian Millennium Development Goals falls within such prioritized issues and that subnational analysis underlines provincial disparities, particularly in relation to the Goal on poverty and several public service Goals. For example, in the areas of education or child or maternal mortality, some provincial patterns of change reflected stronger than average improvements in areas that had been prioritized by the Government and conversely others needed continued or additional targeted efforts.6 33. Beyond geographical differences, attention will also need to be paid to specific groups that are most at risk of being left behind. In her previous reports the Special Rapporteur has focused in particular on non-discrimination and equality and identified a range of individuals and groups most likely to be left behind (see A/HRC/36/61 and A/HRC/39/73). They include, women, children, indigenous peoples, asylum seekers and refugees, persons in street situations, drug and substance users with dependency issues, persons in detention, persons with disabilities, people who have been evicted from their land or homes, the Cham and ethnic Vietnamese and Khmer Krom communities. To them should be added lesbian, gay, bisexual and intersex persons, informal sector workers, migrant workers and older persons. It is also relevant to identify the poor and the near-poor as people at risk of being left behind. Attention is further drawn to several of these groups in the addendum to the present report (A/HRC/42/60/Add.1). 34. Targeted efforts require that relevant groups are “visible”, including from a statistical point of view. Traditional household surveys, helpful for identifying national averages, tend to mask disparities and exclude population groups that may be among the poorest of the poor, or the most vulnerable and marginalized. Indigenous peoples are an example: representing less than 1.5 per cent of the whole Cambodian population, indigenous peoples disappear in national averages. 7 Leaving no one behind is closely related to the issue of data disaggregation, both when setting up national targets and when monitoring progress. 35. At times, geographical disparities may coincide with disparities among groups. For instance, indigenous peoples overall tend to be poorer and more dependent on agriculture and forest for their livelihood, and thus have been particularly affected by economic land concessions, mining concessions, hydropower dams, land grabbing, deforestation and illegal logging; and they are also more likely not to access health services and to be out of school. Although they represent a tiny percentage of the national population, indigenous peoples are in the majority in the north-eastern provinces of Cambodia: 64 per cent and 58 per cent of the population of Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces, respectively. 8 Both provinces are among those lagging behind on several socioeconomic indicators, reflecting limited enjoyment of the rights to health, education and an adequate standard of living. In other provinces, the numbers of indigenous persons range from a few hundred to less than 4,000, so any action to “bring them from behind” will need particular prioritization. 6 7 8 See Cambodian Sustainable Development Goals (CSDGs) Framework (2016–2030), p. 17. In its recent report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD/C/KHM/1417), Cambodia recorded 221,953 indigenous persons, representing 1.39 per cent of the total population, comprising 24 different indigenous groups, spread over 15 provinces. See UNICEF, Independent Evaluation of the Multilingual Education National Action Plan in Cambodia, final report, vol. 1 (May 2019). 9