Opposition Warns of Backslide in Democracy

  

“In order to put the democratization process back on track and to strengthen the mechanisms designed to protect human rights in Cambodia as enshrined in Paris Agreements, the governments of signatory countries and donor institutions such as the European Commission must immediately take adequate measure to ensure the effective respect for all the relevant provisions of the agreements.”

Opposition lawmakers say Cambodia needs to reactivate the Paris Peace Accords, which were enacted in October 1991. Otherwise, the opposition said in a statement, the country will continue moving towards a totalitarian government.

“In order to put the democratization process back on track and to strengthen the mechanisms designed to protect human rights in Cambodia as enshrined in Paris Agreements, the governments of signatory countries and donor institutions such as the European Commission must immediately take adequate measure to ensure the effective respect for all the relevant provisions of the agreements,” the Sam Rainsy Party said in a statement.

The opposition pointed to what it called forms of suppression and the deterioration of human rights and fundamental freedoms as evidence Cambodia's democratic institutions are slipping.

It pointed to crackdowns on dissidents, persecution of opposition parliamentarians and the abuse of the judiciary as further examples, claiming Cambodia was moving toward a one-party system of government controlled by the ruling Cambodian People's Party.

The statement cited statements of concern from local rights groups, Amnesty International and the UN's special human rights envoy, Surya Subedi, who said in a recent report to the UN Human Rights Commission that Cambodia's judiciary needed reform.