A/HRC/15/46 interest and of time outlined above. The inclusion of a member of the executive branch may also be questioned. The body was created to increase the capacity of the SCM to cope with its responsibilities. Its creation therefore indicates that reform of the SCM needs to ensure that the Council has increased capacity. If this is provided, the Assistance Team should be disbanded. 28. Currently the SCM has no specific powers to promote the appointment of women within the judiciary. Currently approximately 10 per cent of the judiciary are women, with about 35 women judges, including prosecutors, out of a total of around 350 judges. There is one female member of the SCM: the Prosecutor-General of the Supreme Court, Chea Leang, a member since 2009. 29. In January 2006, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), following its review of Cambodia’s report under the Convention, recommended in its concluding comments (CEDAW/C/KHM/CO/3) that the Government adopt “measures that will result in an increased number of women in elected and appointed office, including the judiciary”. Such measures should include special measures to actively promote women, training and awareness-raising. The reformed SCM could be given a specific mandate to promote women within the judicial professions in line with this recommendation. V. Problems in legal proceedings 30. In spite of the constitutional guarantees and the existence of various institutions to enhance and safeguard its independence, the Special Rapporteur is of the view that the judiciary has not been working as effectively, independently and impartially as possible. Therefore, he proposes to highlight the shortcomings in the judicial proceedings with the help of case studies in two important human rights areas facing Cambodia today: housing and land-related rights and freedom of expression. These examples illustrate wider problems that exist in the country. A. Housing and land-related rights 31. The issues associated with land rights disputes and evictions continue to dominate the headlines in the media in Cambodia today. The manner in which land is managed and used by the Government for various purposes continues to be a major problem. Landgrabbing by people in positions of power seems to be a common occurrence. Economic land concessions leased to companies and other land transactions have severe consequences for the rural and urban poor as well as for indigenous people.2 In 2009 alone at least 26 evictions displaced approximately 27,000 people in Cambodia. The 2001 Land Law does provide a legal framework to deal with issues of land ownership, but there have been problems in implementing this law properly. It is against this background that Resolution 12/25 of the Human Rights Council urged the Government to enhance its efforts to resolve equitably and expeditiously land ownership issues in a fair and open manner, in accordance with the 2001 Land Law, by strengthening the implementation of the law through the development of national guidelines to clarify relevant procedures. The new Law on Expropriation enacted in February 2010 and the Government Circular issued in December 2009 are positive developments in this direction. The Law on Expropriation provides some 2 8 As of May 2010, according to the Ministry of Agriculture’s public information, economic land concessions had been granted to 85 companies covering a total land area of 956,690 ha. NGOs’ estimates are higher. See http://www.elc.maff.gov.kh/index.html