CCHR invited to meeting with Ministry of Interior, 10 October 2011

Dear all

On the afternoon of 6 October 2011, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) received a call from the Ministry of Interior (MoI) requesting our presence at a meeting the following day at the office of the MoI. The meeting was proposed following a letter that was submitted by CCHR to the MoI concerning difficulties we have recently encountered in trying to conduct human rights training events in Kampong Thom province.

In order to ensure adequate time to prepare for the meeting, CCHR requested that it be postponed until 10 October. Our request was granted. We will attend the meeting on 10 October together with representatives from the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO) and the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC). Both organizations sent monitors to a recent training event jointly organized by CCHR and the Natural Resource Protection Group (NRPG) that was disrupted by armed police in Kampong Thom in September – described in further detail below.

The letter sent by CCHR to the MoI concerned recent obstacles CCHR has encountered in conducting human rights training activities in Kampong Thom province. On 9 August and 7 September, two human rights training events organized by CCHR and NRPG were disrupted by local authorities and armed police in Dangkambet and Mean Rith communes respectively, both of which are in Sandan district, Kampong Thom province. The Law on Peaceful Demonstrations provides that organizers of “education dissemination activities” are exempted from notification requirements under the law. The MoI interpretation guidelines expressly include training events in public and private properties in its interpretation of “education dissemination activities”. It should be noted that CCHR, although not required by law, notifies local authorities of all training events as a matter of courtesy.

Following the disruption of the second training event, CCHR (together with LICADHO, CLEC and the United Nations Office for the High Commissioner of Human Rights Cambodia) were invited to a meeting with the deputy district governor of Sandan. At the meeting, CCHR and the other groups were informed that human rights activities could no longer be held in Kampong Thom province without permission by groups who do not have offices in that province. Furthermore, NGOs could not invite community members from other provinces to take part in human rights activities in Kampong Thom. These directions from the Sandan district authorities have no basis in law and are in fact in violation of a number of human rights principles set out in the Cambodian constitution and international law – including the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and movement.

CCHR is pleased for the opportunity to discuss the foregoing issues with the MoI and would like to express our desire for a positive resolution which will allow the people of Kampong Thom province, and others who wish to travel there to partake in human rights activities, to exercise their human rights under Cambodian and international law.

CCHR will provide you with an update following this meeting.

--Suon Bunthoeun, Attorney –at- Law

Project Officer of Training and Public Forum, CCHR

Email: bunthoeun@cchrcambodia.org
Tel: +855 (0)12 48 35 46
Fax: +855 23 72 69 02
Nº798, Street 99, Beoung Trabek,
Khan Chamkar Mon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

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