Civil Society Organizations Request the Postponement of the 2023 National Elections in Cambodia
To:
Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia
c/o Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Palais des Nations
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
From:
Member of the Khmer Community
[Your name]
[Email information]
Dear Professor Muntarbhorn,
The undersigned Cambodian civil society organizations would like to bring forth to you a consensus for which we need your support to postpone Cambodia's upcoming national elections scheduled on July 23, 2023.
In August 2022, your office released 20-points recommended reform measures that have to be implemented well before the scheduled July 2023 elections in order for the results of the elections to be accepted and recognized as valid and legitimate by the international community. The Hun Sen government has increased and extended its repressive policies on civil society and the political opposition to ensure that it remains in power. It made effective political opposition and meaningful political choice impossible. It criminally prosecuted, jailed and silenced more political opposition leaders and other critics of the Government, including independent journalists, and continued to shut down the independent media.
The Cambodian community has created a grassroots community-based national elections monitoring and reporting effort to assess whether and to what extent the Hun Sen government has implemented the United Nations recommended human rights and rule of law reforms. The grassroots monitoring has found that the Cambodian government has not taken any reasonable steps to implement these reform measures that are essential to make the upcoming July 2023 national elections free, fair and legitimate. Instead, it is doubling down and expanding its repressive policies on human rights defenders and political opposition members to control the electoral process and to remain in power.
The latest indicators demonstrating the Hun Sen government’s repressive actions were on 13 February 2023, in shutting down Voice of Democracy (VOD), one of the country’s leading and few media outlets left. On 3 March 2023, the Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced prominent opposition figure Kem Sokha to 27 years imprisonment and indefinitely suspended his political rights to vote and to stand in elections. The shutting down of VOD and Kem Sokha’s conviction are clear indicators that they are part of the larger pattern of threats and harassment by the Government to target any opposition and critic.
A new alarming report from our monitoring team recently is that our monitors in-country are being subjected to harassment and heavy surveillance by the Cambodian authorities — making their ability to exercise their freedom of expression and freedom of assembly impossible.
Recently our monitors have been contacted by the police, the military police, authorities dressed as civilians, and/ or Hun Sen himself, and given three options:
To change their allegiance to the CPP party;
To record or write a public statement that they will no longer be working on behalf of civil society; or
To be assassinated.
These latest events of increasingly repressive actions make it impossible for the upcoming July 2023 national elections to be a free, transparent, and fair electoral process.
With these findings the undersigned Khmer civil society organizations with unanimous consensus agree that the national elections should be postponed. Cambodia’s political environment must respect and honor the people's rights of freedom of expression and the right to self-determination so that the Khmer people can make informed decisions based on facts rather than fear.
We, the undersigned civil society organizations, urgently request your support and commitment to create a free and fair elections for Cambodians.
Sincerely,
Signatory Civil Society Organizations
Ah Nah Podcast - Conversation with Myanmar (ANP), USA
Association 23 Octobre 1991, (A23O), France
Association Angkor Wat (AAW), France
Association CNRP (ACNRP), France
Association Conscience du Peuple Khmer,(ACPK), France
Association Culturelle Cambodgienne, (ACC), France
Association de Mouvement de la Jeunesse CNRP (AMJCNRP), France
Association des Anciens Compatriotes Khmère (AACK), France
Association des Bouddhistes Khmers d’Alsace (ABKA), France
Association des Cambodgiens de Marseille et des BDR Pour le Salut National (ACM), France
Association Le Lotus Khmer (ALK), France,
Association Nationale des Anciens Amis de l’Indochine, SOS-Cambodge (ANAAI), France
Association Parties National Khmère (APNK), France
Association pour la Promotion des artistes Khmers (APAK), France
Association TEP NIMITH (ATN), France
Australian South-East Asian Network (ASEAN), AUS
Cambodia Border Institute (CBI), USA
Cambodia’s Border Committee (CFC-CBC), France
Cambodia’s Ohio (CO), USA
Cambodian Alliance for the Paris Peace Agreements on Cambodia (CAPPAC), AUS
Cambodian American Community in San Diego (CACSD), USA
Cambodian Americans for Human Rights and Democracy (CAHRAD), USA
Cambodian Association of Victoria (CAV), Australia
Cambodian Australian Federation (CAF), Australia
Cambodian fellowship CRC, (CFCCRC), USA
Canterbury Cambodian Association (CCAA), New Zealand
Chalana Satrey Khmer (CSK), France
Committee for Paris Peace Accords on Cambodia - Minnesota (CPPAC-MN), USA
Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw funding, (CRPHF), Ireland
Democracy Supporters Association (DSA), USA
Dharmiq Institute of Technology (DIT), USA
Free Seng Theary ( FST), Cambodia
Justice for Cambodia Committee (JCC), France
Kampuchean Association of Olympia (KAO), USA
Khmer Alliance Foundation (KAF), USA
Khmer America Institution foundation (KAIF), USA
Khmer Association of Hampton Road Virginia (KAHRV), USA
Khmer Humanitarian of South Carolina,(KHSC), USA
Khmer Kampuchea Krom Culture Inc. (KKKC), AUS
Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation of Victoria (KKFV), AUS
Khmer Krom Cultural Centre of New South Wales (KKCCNSW),AUS
Khmer Krom Youth Development Center (KKYDC), Canada
Khmer Thavrak (KT), Cambodia
Khmer Veterans Freedom Fighters Association (KVFFA), USA
LA2M Los Angeles Myanmar Movement (LA2M), USA
Lao Nation/Study and Research Center on Laos and Asia,(LNSRC), USA
Ligue Cambodgienne des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen (LCDHC), France
Me Boun Foundation (MBF), USA
NUG & CRPH supporters (NCRPHS), Ireland
Our Mutual National Interests International (OMNI), USA
Overseas Khmer Summit (OKS), USA
Pro Démocratie pour le Cambodge (PDCC), Canada
Sons & Daughters of Cambodia (SDC), USA
Sons and Daughters Khmer (SDK), USA
Task Force Omega of Kentucky Inc. (TFOK), USA
Watt Phnom Serei Inc. (WPS), USA