GE.18-19438(E)
Human Rights Council
Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review Thirty-second session
21 January–1 February 2019
National report submitted in accordance with paragraph 5 of the annex to Human Rights Council resolution 16/21*
Cambodia
* The present document has been reproduced as received. Its content does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations.
General Assembly Distr.: General 15 November 2018 Original: English
I. Introduction
1. The Kingdom of Cambodia has a population of approximately 15,717,6741 in 2017 and area of 181,035 km2 that consists of 1 capital, 24 provinces, 26 cities, 12 khans, 159 districts, 1,410 communes, 236 sangkats, and 14,383 villages.2
2. The Kingdom of Cambodia is a least developed country with an average economic growth of 7% over two decades and continues to grow around 7.1% in 2017 and the coming years. The total revenue in 2016 was USD 20.02 billion, which the average of gross domestic product (GDP) was USD 1,435.3 These factors have made Cambodia graduate from a low-income country to a lower middle-income country where poverty rate has been reduced from 53.2% in 2004 to 13.5% in 2015.4
3. The Kingdom of Cambodia has accepted various principles of international human rights as a foundation for its citizens to live in peace, as stimulated in Article 31 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia that, “The Kingdom of Cambodia recognizes and respects human rights – as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human rights, and all treaties and conventions related to human rights, women’s rights and children’s rights. Cambodian citizens are equal before the law and enjoy the same rights, liberties and duties regardless of race, color, sex, language, beliefs, religions, political tendencies, birth origin, social status, wealth or other situations. The exercise of personal rights and liberties by any individual shall not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others. The exercise of such rights and liberties shall be in accordance with the law.”
4. With regard to the conditions of the aforementioned Paragraph 3, the Kingdom of Cambodia has an obligation to submit the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) report on the implementation of human rights to the United Nations, which was reviewed for the first cycle in December 2009 and the second cycle on 28 January 2014. For the second cycle, 205 recommendations were raised by 76 countries for Cambodia. The Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) officially accepted 162 recommendations and took note of 43 recommendations.
5. The RGC is pleased to inform the United Nations of the implementation of 162 recommendations in its national report for reviewing during the third cycle of the UPR process. This national report was developed through consultations with relevant inter- ministerial working group three times and with stakeholders and civil society organisations (CSOs) twice. The contents responding to recommendations are in Section 2 of this report.
II. Responding to recommendations
A. Ratification of the International Covenants and Conventions on human rights (Recommendations No. 6–12)
6. The Kingdom of Cambodia is signatory member of nine core human rights treaties in which Cambodia has acceded and ratified eight out of the nine core human rights treaties such as:
• International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (28 November 1983);
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (26 May 1992);
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (26 May 1992);
• International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (15 October 1992);
• International Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (15 October 1992);
• International Convention on the Rights of the Child (15 October 1992);
• International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (20 December 2012); and
• International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (27 June 2013).
7. The RGC has been studying legal factors, national economic factors, and relevant factors to determine appropriate time and condition, which will ensure that the Kingdom of Cambodia deserves ratification or accession of other international treaties such as the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the UNESCO Convention on the Prevention of Discrimination in Education, the two Optional Protocols to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Article14 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
B. The establishment of national mechanism (Recommendation No. 13)
8. The RGC has set up the national anti-torture mechanism called "The National Committee against Torture, Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (NCT)" in accordance with Royal Decree No. NS/RKT 0817/619 dated 22 August 2017, with nine members from different ministries/institutions and a secretariat. The Committee works independently on its functions in accordance with the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and cooperates with the United Nations Sub-Committee against Torture in the Asia-Pacific. According to the above Royal Decree, Sub-Decree No. 28 ArNKr.BK dated 27 February 2018 and Letter No. 1203SCN dated 12 July 2018 have mandated the Committee to disseminate the national and international regulations related to torture, investigation in prisons, and temporary custodies in cities/provinces, without any prior notification.
C. Judicial sector (Recommendations No. 14–24, 80–96 and 99)
9. Recommendation No. 14: the Criminal Code of the Kingdom of Cambodia was promulgated by Royal Decree No. NS/RKM/1109/022 dated 30 November 2009. In order to ensure the implementation of this Code, the Ministry of Justice has conducted a series of trainings for law enforcement officials, including judges, prosecutors, police, and military police to make them fully understand the substances of provisions of each Article. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice has widely disseminated the provisions of this Code to the public such as organising workshops and producing video spots for broadcasting on television channels, etc.
10. Recommendations No. 15 and 18–22 (Freedom of Expression related to Provisions of the Criminal Code): The Criminal Code of the Kingdom of Cambodia does not contain any provisions that obstruct freedom of expression. Article 305 of the Criminal Code is consistent with the principle of Article 41 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, which affirms that, "[...] No one can exercise this right (freedom of expression, freedom of press, freedom of publication, freedom of assembly) to violate the dignity of others."
11. Article 305 of the Criminal Code stated public defamation, which means that, "Any exaggerated claim or gross negligence of any act that affects the honour or reputation of the individual or institution is defamation." This provision is not a barrier to freedom of expression, but it is to protect human dignity in line with human rights principles.
12. Recommendations No. 24 and 88: Three core laws related to judiciary, including the Law on the Organisation of the Court, Law on the Status of Judges and Prosecutors, and the Law on the Organisation and Functioning of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy were promulgated on 16 July 2014. These three laws have been pushing for implementation to ensure the strengthening of judicial independence through the organisation of judicial
system, by launching court administration units at all levels through the strengthening of discipline and ethics of judges and prosecutors in order to ensure justice services by strengthening the mandate of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy for monitoring the discipline of judges and prosecutors in performing their profession.
13. Recommendations No. 80-87, 89 and 90 (Reform for the Protection of the Independent Judiciary): The promulgation of the three laws as mentioned above in Paragraph 12 is a part of the RGC's effort to implement the programmemes of judicial and legal reform. These three laws are the foundation for strengthening independence of judiciary with the following qualifications:
• The Law on the Organisation of the Court has created institutional strength, which enables the court to operate smoothly and independently and to ensure the provision of justice services to the public;
• Laws on Status of Judges and Prosecutors spiritually strengthen judges and prosecutors to perform the judiciary hierarchy and to ensure the process of case resolutions with high responsibilities; and
• Law on Organisation and Functioning of the Supreme Council of the Magistracy has established a high institution of judicial authority under the presidency of the Majesty of the King to guarantee independence of judiciary through the appointment, supervision and punishment of judges and prosecutors who committed offences against professional ethics.
14. Recommendation No. 91 (Promotion of the Rule of Law): The RGC has been striving to further strengthen and enhance the rule of law in leading the country as follows:
(a) The Constitution is the supreme law that sets fundamental principles, including the respect for human rights, establishment of legislation, organisation of state institutions, and division of state power;
(b) The Conflict Resolution Mechanism which the Kingdom of Cambodia has organised, including administrative resolution mechanism, legislative resolution mechanism, and judicial resolution mechanisms and extra judicial resolution mechanism;
(c) The judicial independence is guaranteed by the Constitution as follows:
• Article 128: Judicial power is an independent power;
• Article 129: Only judges are vested with the judicial functions;
• Article 130: No organs of legislative or executive power can exercise any judicial power; and
• Article 131: Only the prosecution has the rights to take public action;
(d) Law implementation is defined as a specific principle in Article 31 of the Constitution that, "Citizens are equal before the law." So far, the Kingdom of Cambodia has 503 laws for implementation.
15. Recommendation No. 92: Judicial system of the Kingdom of Cambodia has set up an investigating jurisdiction which is a part of judicial body at all court levels of the trial with the power to investigate all cases, including human rights violations. The investigating jurisdiction has judges as actors in the investigating process under independence of the court. Article 127 of the Criminal Procedure Code states that, "The investigating judge is in charge of all investigations which he/she considers useful for demonstrating the truth in accordance with the law. The investigating judge has the duty to investigate both in- exculpatory and exculpatory evidences."
16. Recommendation No. 93 (Juvenile Justice System): In addition to the Code of the Criminal Procedure and the Criminal Code which set out some basic principles related to juvenile justice, the Law on Juvenile Justice was promulgated by Royal Kram No.
NS/RKM/0716/009 issued on 14 July 2016. This law has stipulated the criminal procedure process for minor perpetrators by using diverting measures of minors from court procedures based on rehabilitation foundation by establishing rehabilitation centres to separate minors from adults.
17. Recommendation No. 94 (Women Justice Services): The RGC has paid close attention to justice services for women, by taking various measures such as giving mandate to the Ministry of Women's Affairs (MoWA) to establish the Department of Legal Protection for Women; granting access to 94 MoWA’s officials whose mandate involve with judicial police officers to solve violent cases on women; and providing separate budget of 200 million Riels per annum and increasing to 500 million Riels in 2018 for spending on legal services for women.
18. Recommendation No. 95 (Accessibility to the Poor for Utilising Justice System):
Providing the poor to have access to justice services, which is a part of the RGC’s poverty reduction programme that the Ministry of Justice has been taking actions as follows:
(a) To establish and strengthen Districts/Khans/Cities Justice Centres, which currently have 66 justice centres for the poor to access justice services so as to facilitate conflict resolutions and to provide legal consultative services for free of charge;
(b) To provide lawyers to defend the poor without charging, through collabouration with the Bar Association, by establishing a lawyer office at all courtrooms – which the RGC provides 900 million Riels per annum to assist the process of defending cases for the poor. Meanwhile, the RGC has approved and provided USD 70,000 including the budget from the Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia in total of USD 140,000 for the construction project of lawyer rooms in order to provide counselling to the accused or convicted persons in prisons throughout the country. Currently, this project has started in seven provinces including Takeo, Kampot, Svay Rieng, Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, Kampong Speu and Kampong Chhnang;
(c) To comply with the principles of the Law on the Organisation and Functioning of the Court and Prosecutors to establish a regional appeal court in order to bring the high court closer to the people, especially to facilitate the poor to have access to justice services with the high court, which the RGC has recently provided fund to build an appeal court in Tbong Khmum Province and another one in Battambong Province.
19. Recommendation No. 96 (Strengthening the Law Enforcement Authorities):
The RGC has paid close attention to strengthen law enforcement authorities in both capacity and professional ethics, namely:
• The Royal Academy for Judicial Profession has been training judges and prosecutors every year and conducting further trainings on technical skills, professional ethics as well as international human rights laws; and
• The National Police Academy has trained national police, especially judicial police who are in charge of law enforcement to have skills, technical operations and ethics in order to seek for offenses and to arrest perpetrators.
D. The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) (Recommendations No. 97–99):
20. The RGC has made significant efforts to ensure a smooth implementation and successful completion of the ECCC’s process, particularly to seek for supporting fund for the ECCC as follows:
• The RGC continues cooperating with international communities to seek for assistances, which in 2017 it received from the European Union with the total of EUR 10 million in supporting of the ECCC’s proceedings from 2017 to 2019 – in which EUR 1 million was for NGO's genocide education programmes. In 2018, the governments of Germany and India also provided budget of USD 80,000 and USD 50,000, respectively in addition to the national budget of the ECCC; and
• Meanwhile, the RGC has also contributed budget and materials to support the ECCC’s operation that amounted to USD 46 million – which ranked the second after Japan. Every year, the RGC supports 100% for the ECCC's general operating costs and provides salary for all staff at least 6 months.
21. The RGC has supported activities of the ECCC by considering these activities are an international standard in the direction of judicial reform programme in Cambodia. Starting from this, the reform programme has collected good practices and has compiled a document on the Court’s qualifications. The Ministry of Justice has cooperated with the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations in Cambodia (OHCHR- Cambodia), organised a consultation on the acceptance of features of the ECCC’s process.
Obviously, since 2014, the Ministry of Justice has imposed the Court to use the formula of pretrial detention warrant, which follows the model of the ECCC’s. Meanwhile, some of the ECCC’s achievements which are not judicial processes are highly valued and taken as role models, namely: (1) the legacy of the ECCC is considered as the most important factor of the ECCC that should be preserved and reserved for the next generations including remembrance, non-recurrence genocide, education, as well as capacity building and the strengthening of institutions in judicial sector; (2) the ECCC has also become a model court that some countries have taken as a model for establishing a similar court to prosecute genocide crime, some countries are in the phase of considering, and other countries have gradually developed their courts (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Senekal and Central Africa, etc.); and (3) the concept on administration court that followed the ECCC’s model was created and incorporated into the three laws of judicial system and has been implementing in the national judicial system. Today, all national court levels have a permanent unit called "court administration" in order to ensure the effectiveness of public justice services for everyone.
E. The establishment of law on access to information (Recommendation No. 17)
22. The RGC has officially permitted to establish the Law on Access to Information, which the Ministry of Information has led and collaborated with the Swedish Embassy and UNESCO in Cambodia through the establishment of a Joint Technical Working Group, including state institutions, UN agencies in Cambodia, and CSOs to draft the Law on Access to Information. Currently, the draft law has been finalised at the technical working group level, and it has proceeded to ensure legality and completeness in compliance with the international standards and the economic and social situations of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
F. Electoral reform (Recommendations No. 23 and 117–123)
23. The national election in 2013 has provided experience that required a large electoral system reform to ensure mechanisms on the implementation of democracy for full, fair, and better subsequent elections – starting from the amendments of Constitution and laws related to the election.
• The Law on the Organisation and Functioning of the National Election Committee (NEC) required reform of the NEC, such as to set for a composition of various political parties that have seats in the National Assembly; to determine the roles of the NEC in exercising its competence impartially; and to uphold the basis of respect for the law without any pressure, threat, intimidation, or order directly or indirectly from any individual or institution.
• These experience also required amendment of the Law on the National Election to select parliamentarians, which needed reform of electoral registration system by using computer system to record the voter data in order to ensure completeness, accuracy and update. At the same time, the law also requires a set-up of a coordinating committee to facilitate training programmes to voters and dissemination of registered political parties’ policies through equitable programmes of state media.
G. The promotion and protection of the rights of persons with disabilities (Recommendations No. 25 and 169–171)
24. The Law on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was promulgated by the Royal Kram No. NS/RKM/0709/010 dated 3 July 2009. This law aims at: (1) protecting the rights and freedoms of persons with disabilities; (2) protecting the interests of persons with disabilities; (3) preventing, reducing and eliminating the discrimination against persons with disabilities; and (4) rehabilitating their fitness, intellect, and profession to ensure the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities in social activities.
25. The RGC has set up a National Strategic Plan on Disability (2014-2018) with the goals of: (1) improving the living conditions of persons with disabilities and their families and respecting for the dignity from the birth and independent living with full welfare; and (2) promoting equality before the law, receiving legal services – being free from torture, abuse, exploitation, violence and emergency resolution – as well as promoting equality of women, children, and all kinds of persons with disabilities. 2,576 persons with disabilities have been employed in public ministries/institutions with a rate of nearly 2%, while 2,124 persons with disabilities have been employed in private sectors with the percentage of 5.53%. In addition, 3,133 persons with disabilities in communities have been recognised as the poor to receive state policy scheme. And 205 persons with disabilities have received vocational trainings from non-governmental organisations.
26. Along with the aforementioned attention, the RGC has also supported the participation of persons with disabilities, as the Disability Action Council has organised every year, such as: (1) handicap marathons for people with disabilities; (2) Autism and Down Syndrome days of people with disabilities; (3) national and international days of the dumb and deaf people; and (4) national and international days of persons with disabilities on 3 December annually that are participated by 2,000 to 3,000 of persons with disabilities.
Under the support of the Republic of Korea, the Kingdom of Cambodia has led persons with intellectual disabilities to participate in the Special Olympic Competition in Korea annually, and sent youths with disabilities who won the Global IT Challenge to study for a week, and compete annually in Asia such as Korea, China, Indonesia and Vietnam. In 2016, the Fund for Persons with Disabilities provided physical rehabilitation services to 30,249 persons and cooperated with governmental and non-governmental organisations to provide working and medical rehabilitations to 27,254 persons; and provided treatment services to 2,112 persons in the communities.
H. Child protection (Recommendations No. 26 and 67–72)
27. The Kingdom of Cambodia has laws that guarantee the protection of children from degrading treatments, forced labour, sexual exploitation and sexual abuse, namely:
• The Criminal Code stated some degrading treatments on children as an offence such as Penalty for Abandonment of Minors (Article 321), Incitement to Abandon a Child (Article 330), Depriving Minor under the Age of 15 Years of Food or Care (Article 337), Subjecting Minor to Working Conditions Harmful to His/Her Health (Article 339), Indecent Assault of Minor under 15 Years of Age (Article 341), Inciting Minor to Consume Narcotics (Article 343), Inciting Minor to Beg (Article 344), Inciting Minor to Commit Felony or Misdemeanor (Article 345), and Sexual Assault of Minors by Ascendant (Article 351);
• The Law on Suppression of Human Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation has stipulated to protect children from sexual exploitation and sexual abuse such as Procurement of Child Prostitution (Article 28), Purchase of Child Prostitution (Article 34), Soliciting of Child Prostitution (Article 35), Pornography and Pornographic Material of the Child (Article 41), Sexual Intercourse with a Minor under 15 Years (Article 42), and Indecent Acts against a Minor under 15 years (Article 43);
• The Labour Law prohibits the use of child in heavy labour; and
• Juvenile Justice Law has stated procedures to protect the child against the law in compliance with the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.
28. The RGC has formulated a campaign against child labour and has launched a national action plan on reducing child labour and eliminating the worst forms of child labour (2016–2025). Through this action plan, inspection mechanisms have been reformed and the National Committee against Child Labour has been established to monitor and inspect women's and children's work at factories. As a result, the number of child labour cases have been reduced steadily; for instance, there were 34 cases in 2014, 13 cases in 2015, 16 cases in 2016, and only 2 cases in 2017. Additionally, over the last few years, 28,500 children have been timely prevented and reintegrated into society through providing training skills services and jobs creation.
I. Child birth registration (Recommendation No. 59)
29. In the Kingdom of Cambodia, childbirth registration and gaining of Khmer nationality have legal norms defining clear procedures that have been implemented without any discrimination. Particularly, the gaining of Khmer nationality has to comply with the conditions set out in the laws.
J. Street children and rehabilitation centres (Recommendations No. 66 and 73–74)
30. For paying attention on and helping street children and orphans, the RGC has paid close attention to street children and orphans, including children and youths in the centres receiving accommodation services. There are currently 636 childcare facilities with 26,187 children and youths (12,526 females), in which there are 406 childcare centres with 16,579 children (22 governmental centres have children and youths in total of 1,393). The 25 temporary shelters have 628 children, 71 group staying shelters have 1,592 children;
besides, 7,388 children have been living in dorms, pagodas and religious places around 137 places.
31. The Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation has checked and announced the closure and diversion of 56 childcare centres that violated children's rights and did not comply with the minimum standard of alternative care, 549 children who were reintegrated into the families and communities and 87 orphans have been diverted from the orphanages to receive care services in the communities.
K. The establishment of the National Human Rights Institution (Recommendations No. 28–38)
32. The RGC agreed in principle, to establish a national human rights institution through drafting the Law on the Establishment of the National Human Rights Institution in accordance with the Paris Principles. So far, the Cambodian Human Rights Committee (CHRC) has cooperated with CSOs in the preparation of the draft Law on the Establishment of the National Human Rights Institution. The draft law was initiated by CSOs working group and was subjected to several discussions with the CHRC. However, the draft law has not been finalised. The CHRC will continue to work on the draft law with related stakeholders, especially with the OHCHR-Cambodia in order to make this draft law comply with the Paris Principles.
L. International cooperation in human rights field (Recommendations No.
39–41 and 44–48)
33. The Kingdom of Cambodia has been a UN member since 1955 and actively participated in the UN human rights mechanisms, namely:
• Since 1993, the Kingdom of Cambodia has authorised the OHCHR-Cambodia based in Cambodia;
• Allow the visits of UN human rights mechanisms, such as the Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur for Women's Rights and the Subcommittee against Torture to Cambodia;
• Allow various international organisations to base in Cambodia, such as the EU, OHCHR, UNDP, WHO, UNICEF, WFP, UNFPA, FAO, UNESCO, UNODC, UNWOMEN, UNAIDS, etc.; and
• The Royal Government will extend the MoU with the OHCHR-Cambodia for subsequent mandates.
M. Education and training on human rights (Recommendations No. 27 and 42)
34. To promote and protect human rights, the RGC established the Cambodian Human Rights Committee (CHRC) as an institution to provide education and trainings on international human rights laws at all levels, including civil servants and armed forces.
Moreover, the CHRC has actively performed its roles as follows:
• In 2017, the CHRC has monitored human rights situation in 22 out of 27 prisons throughout the country. By July 2018, the CHRC working groups have monitored 14 prisons and some correctional centres;
• The CHRC has collaborated with relevant ministries, departments, local authorities and other parties in organising seminars on human rights in various provinces throughout the country in order to mainstream and disseminate human rights laws to participants such as law enforcement officials, local authorities, university students, workers, citizen, and indigenous people. Furthermore, the CHRC working groups also disseminated human rights and laws to students at high schools and pedagogic centres. From 2017 to July 2018, 5,088 students (3,037 females) were trained and disseminated5; and
• The CHRC working groups will expand their scope of target groups for disseminating human rights and laws to people in communities across the country.
N. Gender equality, discrimination and violence against women (Recommendations No. 49–56 and 62–65)
35. The RGC has made significant efforts to eliminate discrimination against women and to promote gender equality and equity in Cambodia through the development and the implementation of legal frameworks, policies, action plans and programmes to address and respond to discrimination, violence against women and girls; and to promote equality between men and women in the society. The Criminal Code which was adopted on 30 November 2009 stated that the conviction of those who committed discrimination, regardless they committed directly or indirectly, shall be punished by the Code (Articles 265–273).
36. The Ministry of Women's Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, in consultation with NGOs, issued a statement on "working condition, hygiene provision and work security at enterprises, institutions and entertainment services"
and set up a model policy on working places without sexual harassment to manage employees and workers in textile field, hospitality industries and entertainment services;
and created the training documents for managers and employers. The learning documents have been carried out by 130 garment factories in Phnom Penh. And approximately 60,000 garment factory workers, and 130,000 females in hospitality industries workers were trained on safety at work. In addition, those training documents have been used to train those who work in entertainment service places, so that they can learn about the prevention of sexual abuse and violence against women at work.
37. The Ministry of Women's Affairs has collaborated with relevant ministries and institutions, development partners, non-governmental organisations, mass media and private sectors working closely with law enforcement officers, such as police, gendarmerie and officials from relevant departments through participating in Good Man Campaign (2011–2015) to show good examples and positive attitudes towards unpaid work, to value and respect for all women and to take part in the abolition of violence against women and girls. The target group of the programme is men between the ages of 15 and 49. There are still some campaigns such as the 16-day white bow campaign to end violence against women and girls with the participation of men and boys.
38. The Ministry of Women's Affairs also has its working structures across 25 capital/provinces and every cities/districts/khans that have the mission in the name of the ministry in promoting women's rights and mainstreaming gender to sub-national levels under the framework of Neary Ratanak Plan. Meanwhile, the RGC has established national and sub-national mechanisms, including the Cambodia’s National Council for Women, gender mainstreaming technical working groups of ministries/institutes. At the sub-national level, there are Departments of Women's Affairs, Women and Children’s Affairs Consultative Committees in the capital/provinces, cities/districts/khans, and Committee for Women and Children’s Affairs in communes/sangkats across the country. Currently, 29 ministries/institutions have developed and implemented the Strategic Plan for Gender Mainstreaming. Meanwhile, 28 ministries/institutions have received national budgets and partners’ budgets for implementing, based on field, and gender mainstreaming strategy.
Female civil servants increased to 41% in 2017. There are 15 CSOs as members of the Gender Technical Working Group in which there are main network: (1) the NGO Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (NGOs- CEDAW); (2) ender and Development for Cambodia Network (GADC Net); and (3) the Committee to Promote Women in Politics (CPWP).
39. Land policy titled "White Paper on Land" 2015 stipulated about the ensuring of gender equality and equity between women and men in the land registration process, including increasing women's participation in decision making, keeping track on the policy, plans and initiatives implementations on land sector. Strengthening the procedures of land registration is based on guaranteeing the property rights of real property owners between the couple's assets, individual assets of the husband or wife, and the collective assets of the indigenous communities. Based on Land Titles Database in 2017, among 316,5656 land titles, women received 20.44% and widows received 3.29%.
O. Improvement of prison conditions (Recommendation No. 60)
40. Today, in the Kingdom of Cambodia, there are totally 28 prisons that the RGC has been paying close attention on improving all conditions, both infrastructure and living conditions of detainees. By July 2018, there were 30,444 detainees, 2,616 and 1,551 among whom are women and minors, respectively. 5 prison buildings (2011–2016) were re-built in which one prison was sponsored by the government of Australia. Moreover, the project for repairing 7 prisons in Kompot, Kompong Thom, Bailin, Udor Meanchey, Bonteay Meanchey and Ratana Kiri provinces and a project to build a new prison in Kompong Cham Province are proposed.7
41. Nowadays, each detainee is allowed to get outside the cell and do exercise for at least 30 minutes per day by not including the duration of participating in any other activities. The Ministry of Interior has collaborated with some partner organisations/associations which have tendencies to serve mental health services, such as Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation (TPO) to provide consultations on mental education and life skills to detainees, and collaborated with Sipar Cambodia Organisation to establish libraries in prisons across the country for detainees so as to borrow and read books.
42. The strategic plan of the Ministry of Interior allows convicts who have changed their bad behaviours to join working activities in agricultural programme and crafts in prisons and trains professional skills for making their living after releasing from the prisons and
integrating into the society. Prisons have been implementing in line with international standards in managing the prisons in Cambodia by respecting the human rights principles through upholding the implementation of the “UN Minimum Rules” to ensure the management of detainees with humanity, security, dignity and enhancing the effectiveness of rehabilitation towards urging detainees’ possibility avoiding recommitting offenses and becoming a good citizen after the integration into the society. In addition to the UN Minimum Rules, the General Department of Prison has been studying and checking possibilities to insert the “Bangkok Rules or the Rules of the UN for the Treaty on Women Prisoners”, which was adopted by the UN Council in 2011 applied to the national re- correctional programme in line with the law on prison and the policy of the RGC on the protection and promotion of women’s and children’s rights (child accompanied a detainee mother).
P. Combating against trafficking in persons (Recommendations No. 75-78)
43. The RGC has strongly made efforts to combat trafficking in persons, especially women and children via measures and means such as:
• Since 2004, the RGC has actively joined the cooperation with the Greater Mekong Sub-Region countries, including China, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam to prepare strategic plans and action plans against trafficking in persons in the region;
• In 2008, Law on Suppression of Trafficking in Persons and Sexual Exploitation, which was in compliance with the UN’s Optional Protocol, was adopted;
• The establishment of the National Committee for Counter Trafficking in Persons (NCCT), which has a Deputy Prime Minister, Minster of the Ministry of Interior as the president, leads the work on combating against trafficking in persons by laying out subsequent strategic plans; and
• The establishment of special units in charge of combating trafficking in persons in the national police and military police institutions.
44. In 2017, the competent authorities have suppressed cases related to trafficking in persons as follows:8
Taking Actions of Law Enforcement Officials Taking Actions of the Courts Imprisonment Punishment Kind of
Crimes
Number of Cases
Number of Perpetrators
Number of Victims
Number of Cases
Sent to Detention
Issued Arrest Warrant Trafficking in
Persons 48 72 129
58 129 45
Sexual
Exploitation 111 131 216
Total 159 203 345 58 129 45
Q. Freedom of expression (Recommendations No. 101–116)
45. In the Kingdom of Cambodia, freedom of expression is protected and promoted by laws. Article 41 of the Constitution has promoted citizens to exercise freedom of expression in a framework that not injure reputations of other people, good customs of the society, public order and national security. The Law on Press of Cambodia has provided on freedom of writing and publication not to injure reputations and dignity of others. The criminal code has stated that any allegation or charge made in bad faith via wording or written documents or pictures of any type displayed or released to the public, which tends to injure the honor or reputation of a person or an institution shall be punishable by Article 305 of the Code.
46. The regulations in the criminal code do not mean to restrict freedom of expression, but in order to protect the honor and reputation of persons and institutions – which are consistent with Paragraph 3, Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which stated that, “The exercise of the right provided for in Paragraph 2 of this Article (Freedom of Expression) carries with it special duties and responsibilities. So, the exercising of the right is subject to certain restriction as are provided by law and necessary for: a. respect of the rights and reputations of others; and b. the protection of national security or of public order, or of public health or morals.”
47. In the Kingdom of Cambodia, journalists, human rights defenders, and civil society actors as well as other individuals are equal before the law, protected by the law, and responsible before the law altogether. Freedom of expression or freedom of expression in profession are not offences, but using freedom of speech or freedom of expression in profession as a way to commit any acts prohibited by the law is an offence, such as taking public forum to exaggerate, alleging other people, or using freedom of expression in profession as a shield to hide any crimes.
48. In the past, there were journalists, human rights defenders and a few civil society actors were prosecuted with criminal offences because the court found out that they had used their professions as mediums to commit crimes as aforementioned in Paragraph 47, which goes against the criminal code. These legal actions are not an intimidation or discouragement to journalists, human rights defenders, or civil society actors in performing their professions; however, these actions are measures to maintain security and public order through law implementation as other democratic countries exercised as well.
49. In the Kingdom of Cambodia nowadays, citizens have full freedom in using digital media, including social media such as Facebook. To ensure public and individual interests, the RGC has drafted the law on cybercrime. The Ministry of Interior has cooperated with the representatives from the Ministry of Justice of the USA, which has been reviewing to enhance the draft law and to make the law in compliance with the requirements of Article 19, Paragraph 3 and Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The purpose of the draft law is to determine preventive measures, prevent and suppress any crimes on the communicative technology and information.
R. Labour sector (Recommendations No. 124–127)
50. The RGC has strongly paid attention on finding and providing work for the citizens to have their jobs, both in and outside the country, by issuing a policy on migrant work which focuses on rights protection and interests of the citizens who work overseas.
51. To promote and protect human rights and interests of migrant workers, the RGC has signed memorandums of understandings (MoU) and agreements with some countries as follows:9
• The MoU with the Republic of Korea on sending workers to the Republic of Korea under the system of occupation favor (27 April 2015);
• The MoU with Malaysia on the recruitment and using of Cambodian workers (10 December 2015);
• The agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the recruitment of domestic workers and workers for general work (11 February 2016);
• The MoU with the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste on the cooperation on labour sector (19 August 2016);
• The MoU with the Republic of the Philippines on the cooperation in labour sector (14 December 2016);
• The MoU with the Kingdom of Thailand on the cooperation in labour sector and the agreement on using of labour forces (19 December 2016);
• The MoU with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on the cooperation in labour sector (22 March 2017); and
• The MoU with the human resource development association based in Hong Kong to cooperatively provide supportive services to the Cambodian citizens who are working legally in Hong Kong, especially women assisting household chores (24 April 2017).
S. Poverty reduction (Recommendations No. 128, 136, and 138–146)
52. The Kingdom of Cambodia has maintained its economic growth at around 7% per annum over the past two decades. The gross domestic product for a person increased from USD 1,045 in 2013 to USD 1,435 in 2017, and will be achievable to USD 1,568 in 2018.
The poverty rate has reduced from 53.2% in 2004 to 13.5% in 2014.10 In addition, the RGC has lifted taxes on mark records, transferring ownerships among relatives, transportations such as motorcycles and motor-tricycles with power under 150 CC, reduced prices of clean water and electricity, and provided support to poor citizens for linking clean water system.
Meanwhile, the RGC also cuts down a majority of economic land concession to provide to people as social land concession. To enhance quality and transparency of public services, the RGC has set a specific fee and has made it free of charge on some services, which is in line with the objectives and duration of services; has cancelled taxes on goods and other payments for micro businesses of citizens in all markets/business places across the country;
and allowed traders who have stalls, stores, booths, or selling places as state’s properties to gain the rights to occupy and benefits, and possible to transfer to their children, relatives or others.
53. The Ministry of Rural Development has been strengthening and expanding good cooperation with development partners, non-governmental organisations and private agencies for effective implementation of rural development programmes and poverty reduction. 10 development partners have been providing aids on 13 projects; 44 non- governmental organisations are signing agreements to cooperate on multifarious rural development projects. The Ministry of Rural Development has been continuing responding to the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) by increasing services of clean water supply at rural areas up to 52.4% – which exceeded the MDGs and which was determined only by 50% (CSES 2015) – and the rate of people at rural areas who have received the enhancement of sanitation has increased up to 53.7% – which exceeded the MDGs and which was determined only by 30% (CSES 2015).11
54. The RGC has strived to make small and medium enterprises, rice sector, and other sub-sectors gaining sufficient financial support to strengthen and expand their businesses, and especially provide loan to rice-buying centres and rice dryers, and has made market interventions on rice buying mechanisms, and has also actively participated in the prevention of unreasonable falling of rice’s price in each season. Meanwhile, the RGC has continued to urge various sectoral developments such as industry, agriculture, commerce, finance, tourism, land, construction, infrastructure, etc. These are made in order to take part in increasing productivities and value added, mobilising resources and finance for development, diversifying economic base and ensuring micro-economic stability.
55. The aforementioned factors have made Cambodia possible to graduate from its status as a low-income country to a lower-middle income country, and Cambodia is obviously moving toward a higher-middle income country in 2030. Today, Cambodia is recognised as a fast-growing country in industrial, factory, agricultural, service, tourism and real estate sectors, which strongly contributes to poverty reduction of its people.
T. Land reform (Recommendations No. 129–135)
56. In the Kingdom of Cambodia, there is no enforced revocation or expulsion of citizens from where they are living and where they are legally occupying. What the RGC has done in the past was a provision as a policy or an exchange of the land to citizens who came into and illegally occupied the state's land, and in the case that the state was in need of developing those places. Every exchange of citizen residence is implemented in accordance with the existing procedures, which the RGC has issued some standards and
measures to ensure the exchange of citizen residences with safety, such as the Circular Number 2 on illegal occupations of state land and Circular Number 3 on temporary settlement on state land that is illegally occupied and providing of social land concessions.
57. The RGC has highly paid attention to land reform subsequently in order to hand a full ownership to the citizens in order to enable them to develop, to ensure food security in the country and for exportation. Starting from this, the RGC has set out a National Strategic Development Plan (2014-2018) and the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction has implemented and achieved the results as follows:
• Land registrations by the end of the first semester of 2018 there were 4,777,711 certificates, which is equivalent to 68.25% on the total plan of 7 million plots, handed to the people, in which land of indigenous people communities had 24 communities, which equal to 684 certificates; and
• Established a master plan for utilisation of the land in Phnom Penh, plan for designing the land of Battambong and Phreah Sihanouk Ville Provinces, a master plan for utilisation of the land of 6 cities (Battambong, Tboungkhmum, Takhmao, Kompot, Kep and Siem Reap cities), and a plan for utilisation of the land in 78 communes/sangkats.12
58. To ensure transparent and effective distribution of land to the people, the RGC has created four levels of social land concession mechanisms: (1) the National Social Land Concession Committee, (2) the Provincial/Capital Land Utilisation and Distribution Committee, (3) City/District/Khan Working Groups, and (4) the Commune /Sangkat Councils.
59. Through the above four mechanisms, the implementation of providing social land concession by June 2017 has been achieved, such as (1) distribution of social land concession to former armed forces and their families had 6,608 plots – which equals to 3,304 families, total area is 4,545.88 hectares in 11 targeted provinces; (2) distribution of social land concession to military families and police along the borders in Preah Vihea, Udor Meanchey and Svay Rieng Provinces had 6,272 plots – which equals to 3,136 families, total area is 12,275 hectares; (3) distribution of social land concession to general poor people had 10,794 plots – which equals to 5,397 families, total area is 105,390.74 hectares in 5 targeted provinces; (4) building shelters for former armed forces and their families accounted for 1,680 homes; and (5) building shelters for military families and police along the borders in Preah Vihea, Steung Treng and Svay Rieng Provinces amounted to 5,019 homes, and in 2018 accounted for additional 537 homes.13
(Land settlement mechanisms will be explained more in details in the 2019 report on the economic, social and cultural rights, whereas mechanisms for land issue settlement of indigenous people was already clarified in the 2017 report on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination).
U. Health sector (Recommendations No. 147–160)
60. According to the National Health Strategic Plan 2008-2015 and in order to achieve the Cambodia’s MDGs and development of health sector, the RGC has continued to increase national budget allocation subsequently to health sector, obviously the budget allocation in 2017 was 1,201,854.6 million Riels – which increased 8.2% compared to 2016.14
61. To ensure that its people receive appropriate healthcare services, the RGC has put efforts to expand service mechanisms across the country, namely, in 2017 the number of healthcare centres has increased from 96 centres in 2008 to 1,190 centres; the total number of hospitals (national, provincial and referral hospitals) has increased from 84 in 2008 to 117; the number of health posts are also increased every year according to the need and through the upgrading functions from the health posts to the healthcare centres. Civil servants serving in the public health sector have increased from 18,096 in 2008 to 25,459.
The deployment of midwives along healthcare centres has notably increased to 79 health centres – which there was no midwife in 2008 – and there is now at least one midwife in a
healthcare centre since 2009 onward. The number of healthcare staffs serving at provincial level in total are 18,389, or equal to 72,45% of the total number of the healthcare staffs across the country.15 In 2016, there were 153 emergency maternity services and comprehensive infants caring, in which the emergency maternity services and comprehensive infants caring had 120 places, and the basic levels had 33 places across the country.
62. To ensure poverty reduction and promote equity healthcare services, the RGC has been implementing some mechanisms, such as (1) payment exemption policy has been implemented in all public health facilities across the country to promote the utilisation to prioritise services for the public (such as research and treatment of tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, providing preventive medicines and micronutrients), and the utilisation of healthcare services for poor people, people who are not able to pay, persons with disabilities and helpless elderlies; (2) subsidiary projects being implemented at the national- level hospitals by using entire national budget, the state pays instead of poor people, and people who are unable to pay and come to stay for treatments at the national-level hospitals in the Phnom Penh; (3) equity funding programmes which provide healthcare services at public health facilities to poor people holding equity cards issued by the Ministry of Planning by having prior identification of the poor, or people who have priority cards and who have been identified as the poor/in need at the health facilities. This equity fund covers the cost of healthcare services at public health facilities, traveling cost for pregnant women coming to check or giving births, provides meals for one person to look after a patient in the hospital, and cost for sending patients, and so forth; (4) the reproductive healthcare project under the Cambodia-Germany bilateral cooperation is to promote the utilisation of reproductive healthcare service of the poor and healthcare services for vulnerable people.
Healthcare services that will be paid by various projects, such as birth control, giving birth, safe abortion, keeping track of infant’s growth, research on cervical cancers, and cataract surgeries; (5) community health insurance projects which are budgeted by the contribution from the project members and financial supported by develop partners and which are directly managed by non-governmental organisations and communities without profit; and (6) social security system which is a national social security fund has been signed as agreements with 783 public health facilities in 2017 to provide work risk allowances and healthcare allowances for workers/employees of the economy in systems, and also launching healthcare fund for civil servants, armed forces, retirees, and all types of commune councils and village officials.
63. Meanwhile, programmes against tuberculosis which are implemented follow methodology of the universal healthcare insurance by providing free tuberculosis treatment services for all, including services covering in hospitals (referral hospitals, healthcare centre and health posts in total of 1,300 places) and the provision of DOTS programmes in the communities, which currently exist in 861 healthcare centres. Tuberculosis services are freely provided to all, and for all kinds of tuberculosis, including patients with HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and drug resistant tuberculosis. Moreover, free tuberculosis treatment services are also provided for immigrants, including migrants and foreigners in Cambodia. The treatment services were also provided in 17 prisons in 2017.
64. In order to ensure that the citizens obtain full-fledge healthcare services with quality, safety and effectiveness in all public and private health facilities, the Ministry of Health has issued a Health Strategic Plan 2016-2020, which clearly sets the purposes of health development consistent to Goal 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which is “to ensure the living of people with good health and promote the health of all people and all ages”, such as (1) expanding coverage and the utilisation of quality, safe, and effective healthcare services and information to the people, especially citizens and geographical areas that are difficult to receive the services; (2) strengthening the sending systems to help patients or victims to receive a set of healthcare services or comprehensive healthcare according to practical needs; (3) providing quality healthcare services in line with the national protocols, the clinic executive guides, and quality standards; (4) urging the behavioural change of service providers in communications with patients and customers and behaviour of people on healthcare; and (5) strengthening the implementation of approaches on services with quality, effectiveness and sustainability as well as increasing accountability on the results.
