A/HRC/42/60
I. Introduction
1.
During the year under review (June 2018–June 2019), the Special Rapporteur
continued to monitor the situation of human rights in Cambodia, receiving information
from different stakeholders, including the Government, civil society organizations, United
Nations agencies and private citizens. The Special Rapporteur undertook two missions to
Cambodia, from 29 October to 8 November 2018 and from 29 April to 9 May 2019. In the
present report she draws on these missions as well as other information received throughout
the year.
2.
The Special Rapporteur records her appreciation of the full cooperation she has
received from the Government.
3.
During her missions, the Special Rapporteur met with government representatives
and other stakeholders, including civil society organizations, the United Nations country
team and development partners. She met with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of
the Interior, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International
Cooperation, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy and Finance, the
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Land Management, Urban Planning and
Construction, the Senior Minister and Minister of Planning, along with the DirectorGeneral of the National Institute of Statistics, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of
Information, the Minister of Health, the Minister of the Environment, the Minister of
Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the Minister of Social Affairs Veterans and Youth
Rehabilitation, the Governor of Phnom Penh, the President of the Cambodian Human
Rights Committee, the Deputy President of the Anti-Corruption Unit, the Secretary-General
of the National Authority for Combating Drugs and the Deputy Secretary-General of the
Council for the Development of Cambodia. She also met with a wide range of relevant
stakeholders, including representatives of political parties.
4.
It was regrettable that the Special Rapporteur was again denied confidential
interviews with detainees, in particular Kem Sokha, formerly a key political party leader,
who remains detained at his home under restrictive judicial supervision. She was however
able to undertake an unannounced visit to the Phnom Penh Social Affairs Transit Centre
(Prey Speu), and received invitations for future on-the-spot visits to drug treatment centres.
The Special Rapporteur reiterates that she should be able to visit any place of detention and
meet with anyone in detention as part of discharging her mandate.
II. Recent developments
A.
Political rights
5.
This section provides an update of the issues raised in the addendum to the report of
the Special Rapporteur to the Human Rights Council in 2018 (A/HRC/39/73/Add.1). There
has been little change with respect to issues related to political rights in Cambodia. The
ruling Cambodian People’s Party won all 125 seats in the National Assembly and
overwhelmingly controls the Senate (ibid., para. 81). The Cambodia National Rescue Party
remains dissolved with all the positions of its commune chiefs and almost all the positions
of its commune councillors transferred to unelected members of the Cambodian People’s
Party, which thus holds over 95 per cent of seats at the commune level. This effectively
denies the exercise of the right to vote of around 44 per cent of the voting population who
voted for the Cambodia National Rescue Party during the 2017 commune elections. The
provincial, municipal and district council elections took place in May 2019. They are
indirect elections, voted for by commune councillors. The National Election Committee
announced on 8 June that the Cambodian People’s Party had won 98 per cent of all seats;
three other parties secured 80 of the 4,114 seats.
6.
On 6 September 2018, a Supreme Consultative Council, comprising representatives
of the unsuccessful political parties who contested the national elections, was established by
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