Cambodia’s ambassador to the UN says the country rejects four recommendations from the UN Human Rights Council.
Earlier this year, the rights council made 205 recommendations to Cambodia, which “noted” 38 of them and accepted 163.
Ney Samol, Cambodia’s permanent representative to the UN, said in a speech before the council Thursday that Cambodia would reject four of them.
The rejected recommendations are a repeal of a criminal defamation code in the press law; ensuring the right to education to children, including Vietnamese; combating discrimination; and doing more to address school dropouts.
Ney Samol told the council Cambodia had already “made great efforts” to protect the rights of women and children through its laws and policies.
Nicolas Agostini, the delegate of the International Federation of Human Rights to the UN, told the English-language Cambodia Daily Thursday that Cambodia was being “more straightforward in its defiance of international human rights standards” than in the past. “Today, the Cambodian government has sent a clear message that it does not intend to uphold the basic human rights of its citizens.”
International observers, meanwhile, called on Cambodia to continue to improve its human rights environment. The US “noted with concern” an ongoing ban on assembly, following a brutal crackdown on demonstrators in January. And the UK said it was concerned about a new law on cyber crime, and urged Cambodia to “ensure that the draft law [does] not curtail freedom of expression.”
