The human rights situation in Cambodia is facing growing criticisms both within the country and from an increasingly alarmed international community. After a series of flagrant violations against basic human rights a feeling of incertitude regarding the direction the country is emerging, sometimes comparing the situation to a newborn Burma.
In its report on Cambodia, Human Rights Watch stated that "authorities continue to ban or disperse most public demonstrations. Politicians and journalists critical of the government face violence and intimidation and are barred from equal access to the broadcast media. In addition, the judiciary remains weak and subject to political influence. Sex trafficking in Cambodia of women and children through networks protected or backed by police or government officials is rampant. The government continues to turn a blind eye to fraudulent confiscation of farmers' land, illegal logging, and widespread plundering of natural resources."
The current state of the country could be described as a semblance of pluralistic democracy. In July 2004, the royalist opposition party FUNCINPEC formed a coalition government with the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) after a political deadlock of more than a year. More recently, Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) members have been targeted for criminal prosecutions, after seeing the parliamentary immunity of several SRP members lifted by a criticized closed-door hand vote with members of the parliament.
Cambodia has become a major hub for transnational scamming compoundsUnited Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Trafficking in Persons for Forced Criminality in Southeast Asia. Vienna: UNODC, 2023., a phenomenon rooted in long‑standing structural human rights failures that allow trafficking,Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Illicit Economies and State Capture in Cambodia’s Digital Fraud Zones. Vancouver: APFC, 2024. forced labor, arbitrary detention, torture, and corruption to flourish with impunityOffice of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Statement on Forced Criminality and Online Scam Compounds in Southeast Asia. Geneva: United Nations, 2023.. International monitors have documented that Cambodian authorities routinely restrict protests, intimidate journalists, and suppress dissentHuman Rights Watch. Cambodia: Events of 2023. New York: HRW, 2024., while security forces commit killings and torture without accountabilityHuman Rights Watch. Cambodia: End Impunity for Police Killings. New York: HRW, 2020.. Authorities regularly restrict the right to peaceful assembly by suppressing protests and banning nonviolent gatherings.Amnesty International. Cambodia 2023: Human Rights Report. London: Amnesty International, 2023. The judiciary remains weak, corrupt,Global Anti‑Scam Organization. Forced Scamming and State Complicity in Cambodia. GASO Research Report, 2024. and subject to political influence, enabling criminal networks to operate large,Muntarbhorn, Vitit. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Cambodia. Geneva: United Nations Human Rights Council, 2022. guarded compounds where foreign victims are trafficked, confined, and coerced into online fraud.Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Scamming in Southeast Asia: A New Form of Organized Crime. Geneva: GI‑TOC, 2023. Human Rights Watch notes that Prime Minister Hun Sen’s decades‑long rule relied on security force violence and politically motivated persecution of opponents and activists.Reuters. “Trafficked, Tortured and Forced to Scam: Inside Cambodia’s Cybercrime Compounds.” Reuters Special Report, October 2022. Security forces commit killings and torture with impunity.The New York Times. “Kidnapped and Forced to Scam: The Dark World of Cambodia’s Online Fraud Factories.” New York Times, August 2023., creating a political environment in which illicit enterprises can thrive with minimal oversight. Together, these conditions form a convergence of severe human rights violations,International Crisis Group. Cambodia’s Cyber‑Scam Crisis: Criminal Economies and State Weakness. Brussels: ICG, 2024. forced labor, torture, trafficking, and state impunity,Freedom House. Trafficking, Corruption, and Digital Crime in Cambodia. Washington, DC: Freedom House, 2023. making Cambodia’s scam‑compound crisis not merely a criminal issue but one of the most alarming human rights emergencies in Southeast Asia today.Journal of Human Trafficking. Chan, Sopheak, and Melissa Curley. “Corruption, Impunity, and Human Trafficking in Cambodia: Structural Drivers of Abuse.” Journal of Human Trafficking 9, no. 2 (2023): 145–162.
The NGO Human Rights Watch offers this assessment of the current state of affairs in Cambodia:Prime Minister Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge commander, had been in power since 1985. His rule had relied on security force violence and politically motivated persecution of opposition members, activists, and human rights workers. Security forces commit killings and torture with impunity. Authorities regularly restrict the right to peaceful assembly by suppressing protests and banning nonviolent gatherings and processions. The politically powerful have carried out forced evictions and illegal land grabs for decades. Government officials and judges are mired in corruption. Garment industry workers, primarily women, are subject to sexual discrimination and other rights abuses.
Historical background
Human rights in Cambodia may be seen in the context of both its traditions deriving primarily from Indian culture and its absolute rule of god-kings, and Buddhism, the main religion within Cambodian society.
In more modern times, the country has been greatly influenced by French colonialism and a half century of radical change from constitutional monarchy, to a presidential regime under Lon Nol, a radical Marxism–Leninism under the Khmer Rouge, a Vietnamese occupation under the communist party People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK), and finally the restoration of constitutional monarchy under a United Nations administered transition (UNTAC), a result of the Paris Agreement signed in 1991. Under the Khmer Rouge, extensive violations of human rights were committed.Ben Kiernan. 2008. The Pol Pot regime: race, power, and genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 544 pages
The Paris Agreement required that the Constitution include "basic principles, including those regarding human rights and fundamental freedoms ..." The Paris Agreement also required Cambodia "to take effective measures to ensure that the policies and practices of the past shall never be allowed to return." The Constitution of 1993 does indeed contain a chapter on "The Rights and Obligations of Khmer Citizens" consisting of twenty articles (Articles 31–50), seventeen of which relate to rights and three to duties.
In compliance with the requirement of the Paris Agreement that the constitution provide that "[a]ggrieved individuals will be entitled to have the courts adjudicate and enforce these rights" and that "[a]n independent judiciary will be established, empowered to enforce the rights provided under the constitution", the Constitution stipulates that Khmer citizens have the right to denounce, make complaints or file claims against the state of state agents, the settlement of which should be determined by the courts.
Since the adoption of the Constitution in 1993, the UN has appointed a Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Human Rights in Cambodia and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights opened a Cambodian office. These institutions alongside local and international human rights groups have documented a wide range of human rights violations, with limited results, in terms of reform and redress.
Issues
Freedom of expression and assembly
Violations of freedom of expression, including lack of access to the media, are endemic. More recently, what was decried as a campaign against freedom of expression marked an accelerating backward slide in Cambodia's efforts to promote human rights values. There are severe restrictions on freedom of assembly, granted by the Cambodian Constitution, is also being perceived by local organizations as a deliberate campaign to repress Cambodian civil society to grow and voice their concern. On 14 March 2018, the UN expert on the human rights situation in Cambodia Professor Rhona Smith of the United Kingdom, "expressed serious concerns about restrictions on the media, freedom of expression and political participation ahead of a national election in July, calling on the Government to choose the path of human rights." She urged the authorities to lift the ban on 118 politicians participating in politics.
Journalists in Cambodia are increasingly being subjected to various forms of harassment and pressure, as well as violence, a report published on August 3, 2022, by the UN Human Rights Office said, amid growing restrictions on civic space and press freedoms in the country. Sixty-five journalists were interviewed and surveyed as part of the report.
Soy Sros, a Cambodian woman who makes bags for international fashion brands like Michael Kors and Kate Spade, worked at the Superl factory in Kampong Speu Province. On 4 April 2020, Soy was sent to prison for a Facebook post in which she wrote about her concerns that workers from her factory would be laid off in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. She was interrogated by several police for more than 48 hours. "There were several policemen in the interrogation room, and they asked me if I wanted attention, or to be famous, whether I was trying to incite somebody," Soy said. "They called me names, offended my dignity as a woman."
Soon after, Soy was thrown into the Kampong Speu prison. Superl's initial charges against Soy claimed that she had posted fake news and defamed the factory. But the court that was looking into her case also charged her with two criminal offenses, provocation and discrimination. If Soy were found guilty, she faced up to three years in prison and a fine of up to six million riels (approximately US$1,500). She was jailed for two months.
In 2020, Human Rights Watch raised concerns that the Cambodian government had used the 2020-2021 COVID-19 pandemic to restrict fundamental liberties, including granting laws banning the distribution of information, establishing surveillance of telecommunications, and total control of the media.
Judiciary system
Efforts to establish an independent judiciary have been considerable for over a decade but have not yet achieved hoped-for results. The judiciary remains corrupt, inefficient, and mostly controlled by the ruling CPP party. Flagrant violations of human rights by state agents have been identified but prosecutions have been rare.
Arbitrary arrests are also practiced by the CPP government using a politically controlled court as a means to strengthen its grip on power. In 2006, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled that 'the detention of Sam Rainsy Party MP Cheam Channy is in violation of both Cambodian and international law'.
Women's rights
Gender roles in Cambodia are strict and domestic violence against women is a very serious problem. For several years, the Cambodian Ministry of Women's Affairs has shown a considerable commitment in the fight against gender-specific and domestic violence, making it a national Millennium Development Goal.
LGBT rights