UN rapporteur 'encouraged' but says human rights still fall short

26 Jan, 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - The UN human rights rapporteur said Tuesday the Cambodian government was cooperating with him to identify and address human rights problems, marking a turnaround from the fractious relationship Phnom Penh had with his predecessor.

Speaking near the end of his second visit, Surya Subedi said he was encouraged by progress made in some areas, including the completion of the first case at the Khmer Rouge war crimes tribunal and efforts to reform the prison system.

But he said Phnom Penh had failed to meet its international human rights obligations in a number of areas, not least in relation to the expulsion to China last month of 20 Uighur refugees, whose fate remains unknown.

The expulsions caused a storm of international criticism, including from some of Cambodia's key donors. "The issue here is compliance to international laws," Subedi said.

"Whether it is Uighur refugees or other refugees, due process should be followed and they are entitled to the protection of international law."Subedi added that the government had refused his request to consider a moratorium on land evictions until a legal framework was in place, saying that any such halt would interfere with development.

"But they are receptive to having national guidelines, so those are being developed," he said, adding that the UN Human Rights Council, to which Subedi reports, had for the first time said the country should have guidelines in place.

"So it is now becoming an international requirement," he said.

Subedi met Prime Minister Hun Sen and other senior officials, as well as diplomats and representatives from civil society. He said the focus of his second visit was to measure the strength of country's institutions such as its courts and parliament.

"[But] my primary task is to make sure that the government's activities and the activities of other state institutions conform to the international standards and the standards spelled out in [local law]," he said, adding that he expected the government to live up to its obligations under international law.

Cambodia's human rights situation was heavily criticized by US-based Human Rights Watch in its annual review released last week, and again earlier this week in a subsequent report outlining torture and rape allegations in state-run drug detention centres.

Subedi pointedly described HRW as "a highly respected institution" during his press conference Tuesday. The Cambodian government had flatly rejected the human rights report as "insulting" and said the findings of the second report were without merit.

Subedi's predecessor, Kenyan lawyer Yash Ghai, had a rocky relationship with Phnom Penh and quit the post in late 2008.

In 2006, Yash Ghai described the government as "not very committed to human rights." Hun Sen later called the rapporteur "deranged" for saying that power was to centralized with the prime minister.