PECH SOTHEARY
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| Rhona Smith (second right) at her meeting with the Justice Minister yesterday. KT/Mai Vireak |
Rhona Smith, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Cambodia, who is on a three-day trip to the Kingdom, yesterday voiced her concern about overcrowding in prisons caused by an increase in temporary detentions before trials.
Ms. Smith, on her third visit to Cambodia, raised her concerns with Minister of Justice Ang Vong Vathana at the ministry yesterday, spokesperson Chin Malin told reporters afterwards.
“The Justice Minister acknowledged that this is a big challenge because our prisons are small and the number of prisoners is large, and expanding prisons is the work of the Interior Ministry,” he said.
“We will consider the legal mechanisms and policies to try not to let the prisoners face too much overcrowding in prison.”
Mr. Malin said Ms. Smith had also raised a number of other concerns about prisons and legal issues in Cambodia.
He said she had proposed the idea of community service, where minor offenders could be made to perform work in their communities as punishment, rather than being sent to prison, as well as the enforcement of strict sentencing for cases of violence against women and children.
He said Ms. Smith suggested that current punishments for violence against women and children were lax and that more needed to be done to ensure perpetrators received suitable sentences.
On these points, Mr. Malin said the Criminal Code does not currently allow flexibility in sentencing, but that the ministry and the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had agreed to work together to find solutions to these problems.
Ms. Smith also spoke of the need to prepare clear legislation banning surrogacy in the country, which is now something of a gray area.
“This law would protect children...because in the past, when people wanted kids, it became like a business buying and selling kids etc. We are concerned about the future of children who are born without a clear legal identity,” Mr. Malin said.
According to local rights group Licadho, Cambodia’s prisons are some of the most crowded in the world, ranked 29th worst out of 211 surveyed in a report by the International Center for Prison Studies, and 23rd when concerning those in pre-trial detention.
In the afternoon, Ms. Smith met with Keo Remy, the head of the government’s Cambodian Human Rights Committee.
After their closed-door meeting, Mr. Remy told reporters they had talked about the current human rights situation in the country.
“We continue to cooperate with each other because human rights is not [something] bad, but is to promote assisting local people. It’s not a bad subject.”
He said the pair had not discussed the beating of senior Licadho coordinator Am Sam Ath during a peaceful march on Monday to celebrate World Habitat Day. However, he urged any victims of violence from Monday’s march to file complaints with the police.
Daun Penh district security forces attacked the procession at it passed the Royal University of Fine Arts on its way to present a petition to the Land Ministry, violently tearing away flowers and signs from the peaceful marchers.
“I forbid the use of violence, but those security guards used violence on me, which clearly shows that even with a human rights official, they will still use violence,” Mr. Sam Ath told Khmer Times on Monday.
“What about ordinary citizens? The government should stop denying that there are no human rights violations.”
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