Groups Want Independent Human Rights Body

Cambodia must establish an independent, national human rights institution with the power to conduct investigations and sanction those guilty of violations, representatives of the country’s two leading local rights groups said on Friday. A consortium of rights groups met Thursday in Phnom Penh to discuss the establishment of an independent national human rights institution, which the U.N. endorsed under the Paris Principles in the early 1990s, and which Prime Minister Hun Sen committed to establishing in 2006, said Nay Vanda, deputy head of monitoring at Adhoc. However, seven years since Mr. Hun Sen made his statement, there has been no movement toward such a body, Mr. Vanda said. … Under the U.N.’s Paris Principles on the establishment of a national human rights institution, such a body must be independent of both government and NGOs, but act as a bridge between both. According to the U.N., the body may be granted quasi-judicial authority to freely investigate any and all issues that are brought to its attention regarding the protection and promotion of human rights, and its mandate must be endorsed on either a constitutional or legislative footing. The government’s current Human Rights Committee, which is staffed by senior members of Mr. Hun Sen’s long-ruling CPP, is unable, or unwilling, to properly investigate rights abuses because of its pro-government bias, Mr. Sam Ath said. The Committee’s president is Om Yentieng, a close adviser to Mr. Hun Sen. …

 Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/groups-want-independent-human-rights-body-48227/