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Human Rights Day on December 10, 2011

Phnom Penh-December 10 is an anniversary celebration for Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was adopted by United Nation in 1948. This year it is the 63rd reaffirm of the declaration. The world celebrates Human Right Day on December 10 every year. Remarkably, on Saturday, December 10, 2011, the group of civil society organizations in Cambodia held the 63rd anniversary of Human Right Declaration under main theme “Independent Judiciary and Freedom of Expression are Foundations for Social Justice and Respect for Human Rights”. More than 4,000 people gathered to commemorate the Human Rights Day marching from Cambodia National Assembly to Freedom Park (Suon Serey Pheap). In public perspectives, it was a good and remarkable sign for Cambodia that has tried to urge to respect human rights in spite of its new democracy.

Remarkably, the participants came from different backgrounds including representatives from United Nation, international and local civil societies, embassy officials, European Union, Royal representative and government officers.

Mr. Thun Saray, the chairman of CHRAC and president of ADHOC gave his warmly welcome to all participants of thousands. Cambodia practiced constitutional monarchy, in the form of democracy, poly parties and respecting human rights after it first election in 1993 supported by UNTAC. Since then, many objectives to promote human rights in Cambodia have been set forth and spread by many local and international civil societies to Cambodian people. However, we could still see various violations as some people did not like human rights and believed that human rights respect was worthless. In contrast, Mr. Thun Saray added that respect and protect human rights would bring a lot of benefits for all human without social discrimination. “If a government’s official respect human rights, he or she would gain fondness in return from their citizen, if all citizens respect human rights, it would lead to a peaceful society” Mr. Saray said in an example. He finally suggested that Cambodian Government should find ways to speed up some important laws processing like juridical reform to see a fair and impartial court system in Cambodia, assure free speech and expressions for all people like rights to public assembly, and continue to prepare land management in temptation to avoid force eviction, and land conquer in form of economic land concession.

Prince Norodom Chakrapong, a king representative added that Cambodian people had experienced such a strong terror from their recent history, and from that, we have bitterly overcome to build up new society with human right respect. “We know clearly about human rights because the Buddha taught us,” the prince explained.

Similarly, Prof. Surya Subedi, special Repporteur said that the universal declaration of human rights defined common human rights value of the international community and Cambodia is an important member of that community. “United Nation Human Rights Council was established in March 2009 in Cambodia to assist the government and the people of Cambodia to achieve the objectives of human rights respect,” added Prof. Subedi. He finally reminded that the aim of universal declaration of human rights is to see a fair deal from the government for all the people.

Throughout various presentations and claims, the participant could gain many lessons learned from the ceremony. Miss. Khev Phearum, a garment factory worker in Phnom Penh said that human right respect would benefit a lot for her as a factory worker because in some factories workers were forced to work extraordinary hours when boss needed more cloths. “They said that if you could not fulfill the need of cloths, you will not allow leaving the factory” Phearum added. In this case, if there was, she said, a trade union, the voice of complaint would reach the boss. She finally suggested there should be independent trade union in every factory in order that workers can raise their concerns to factory manager of boss.

Another participant and a representative of Tumpon group in Rattankiri, Mr. Touch Hneb complained that there were always violations from powerful or rich people against minority group in his province like the case at Korng Ghok Commune that a company conquered the community land. He appealed for the government to keep minority group communities, so that the next generation would know their culture and tradition.

Tan Bureirattana, third year student in sociology at Royal University of Phnom Penh said that this celebration was very crucial as it would surprise the government to recognize and promote human rights respect. Rattana has observed that there were so many cases of human rights violation in Cambodia- the case of Beong Kak Lake would be one example, and the solution normally crashed in to serious violence between local people and authority.

Chean Sokhum, a student majoring in Law said that this celebration was special as people, representative from United Nation, government official, and civil society have gathered to freely talk about human rights respect. “Human Right is a remarking problem for Cambodia since there were cases of land dispute, labor force violation, force eviction” claimed Sokhum. “Arm Polices were deployed whenever and wherever the demonstration occurred,” added Sokhum. As one of Cambodian Youths, Sokhum wanted to see the effort of Cambodian Government to promote more understanding about human rights among its citizen in order that they could know when the violation happened. 

Totally, the Human Right Day anniversary this year has played an important role to promote human rights in Cambodia as it was a good chance for people to speak or express freely to internal communities or local organizations that has worked for human respect especially the young youths who will become the future leaders of their countries. Moreover, this chance would be considered to build up solidarity among all groups of Cambodian people as there was a participant from minority group of Eastern Provinces as well. However, good celebration did not mean good human rights respect and protect, we all need to involve in promoting our rights by raising concerns, protesting, and participating.

 

Article by Sorn Udam
Photos by Chivon, PCU

 

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