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The Importance Of Human Rights In Cambodia

Decent Essays

Over thirty years Cambodia has been a country stripped of basic human rights. To this day the government is run by corrupt political leaders whom were to blame for the 2.8 million civilian deaths during the 1970’s (Heuvenille, 2015). Although genocide and ethic minority persecution is part of Cambodia’s past there are many other human rights issues that are on-going from the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.

Many English newspapers to come out of Cambodia speak of the lack of basic political participation and fundamental freedoms the Cambodian people have. The government is monitoring online activity with newly enacted laws that are enabling National Police to arrest and seize people and their belongings if any of the material they put online is specifically against Prime Minister Hun Sen’s campaign. This completely goes against the constitution of Cambodia that states,

“The Kingdom of Cambodia shall recognize and respect human rights as stipulated in the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human rights, the covenants and conventions related to human rights, women’s and children’s rights” (Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia, 1993).

Free Speech as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human rights is a basic human right that people process simply because of their humanity (Cruft, Liao & Renzo,2015) and sadly Cambodian officials are choosing to completely ignore this aspect of the constitution. According to an article written by Phenom Phen post many

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