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17 February, 2022 – With escalating worries from Cambodia’s civil society, media, and human rights defenders about the country’s shrinking civic space, today, the United Nations Country Team in Cambodia launched a project aimed at bolstering this space.
The Australian Government-funded AUD1 million (approximately USD717,000) the “Building Back Better Through Participation – Enhancing and Protecting Civic Space and People's Participation" project will run for two years and seeks to provide ongoing support to human rights defenders, advance civic space and empower government stakeholders to address human rights violations and abuses.
Civil society and media advocates met with United Nations Resident Coordinator Pauline Tamesis and Australia’s Ambassador to Cambodia Pablo Kang to speak directly about their challenges and needs.
“You all know better than I, that individuals who stand up for the rights of others pay the price,” Ms Tamesis told the civil society and media representatives present.
“It’s not easy to do human rights or advocacy work anywhere around the world and it was truly inspiring to hear directly from passionate changemakers about their journeys and how they are in need of the type of support this project is aiming to offer,” she said.
The United Nations Secretary-General, in his annual report on the role and achievements of OHCHR-Cambodia, identified concerns around the shrinking civic space in the country.
“We urge Cambodia to do more to protect the rights of activists to speak, to express themselves, to associate and to assemble in protest freely. The exercise of these fundamental freedoms is even more important in a year where Cambodia is the ASEAN Chair and the region looks to this country as a role model,” she said.
Ambassador Kang said the COVID-19 pandemic had exacerbated existing challenges for the civic space in Cambodia.
“While we commend the Cambodian Government for its response to COVID-19 to date, we urge it to ensure that civil society actors are able to fully exercise their fundamental freedoms of speech, assembly and association. The active engagement of civil society is critical to protect human rights and achieve equitable and sustainable development in Cambodia.”
“By launching this project, the UN and Australia want to convey that when you stand for human rights, you do not stand alone. A healthy civil society and a free, independent media is crucial for any society to truly thrive. At the heart of this project, is the UN Secretary General’s Call to Action, which places civil society at the centre of building back better from the pandemic and global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,”
Ms Tamesis said.
Implemented jointly by UN Human Rights and UNESCO in Cambodia, the project establishes targeted activities to halt threats to civil society and is a response to a needs assessment that showed the greatest causes for concern in Cambodia are for safety of activists in rural areas and digital spaces.
