"On Human Rights Day, Civil Society Organizations Call for the Royal Government of Cambodia to Respect its Human Rights Obligations", 10 December 2020

On Human Rights Day, we the 67 undersigned civil society organizations, call on the Royal Government of Cambodia (“RGC”) to respect the democratic principles and human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (“UDHR”) and the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia (“the Constitution”), and fulfil its human rights obligations. We further call on the RGC to immediately end the targeting of activists, human rights defenders, journalists, political opposition supporters, and other critical voices that has tarnished 2020, and unconditionally release all of those arbitrarily detained…

Concerning legislative developments throughout the year have sought to dwindle individual freedoms, whether exercised online or offline…

In addition to these legislative developments, 2020 has also borne witness to significant assaults on the fundamental freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and Cambodia has garnered global attention due to a government crackdown on activists, human rights defenders and public-facing dissenting voices for exercising their fundamental freedoms. Over 120 individuals have been arrested so far this year for exercising their fundamental freedoms.

… Further, …, trade unions had thousands of their members faced unemployment, with many reports of employers using COVID-19 as a guise to cull union members from their businesses…

On Human Rights Day, we call on the RGC to respect their human rights commitments by immediately ceasing the ongoing attack against all voices of dissent in the country, and releasing those arbitrarily detained for legitimately exercising their fundamental freedoms…