The U.S. Department of State issued a press release on Friday to support the statements issued by the European Union (EU) and the Office Of The High Commissioner For Human Rights (OHCHR) concerning the extension of the pre-trial detention of Lim Mony, Nay Vanda, Ny Sokha, and Yi Soksan, members of the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC), as well as its former member Ny Chakrya. The five activists have been detained in Prey Sar prison without trial for more than one year.
According to the U.S. Government, this extension is "the unreasonable delay in proceeding to trial." Moreover, the U.S Government supports the view of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention who has said that the detention of these five human rights defenders is arbitrary.
Regarding this issue, the United States urges the Cambodian government to respect the international laws and regulations that Cambodia has been ratifying in the past in order to protect human rights in the kingdom.
"The United States encourages the Government of Cambodia to consider carefully these recommendations and respect its relevant international human rights obligations," read the U.S. Department of State's press release.
As for the EU, in its press release issued on Thursday, the EU stated that it is important that the rights of the five human rights defenders are guaranteed under Cambodian laws as well as under international laws that the Kingdom of Cambodia ratified. As a result, the violation of the rights of those human rights defenders is the violation of the international laws.
"It is important that the rights of these five individuals be fully respected and that any breaches of their rights under Cambodian law and under the international agreements to which Cambodia is a signatory be appropriately remedied," read the EU's press release.
In contrast, on Thursday, the Cambodian government issued a statement saying that the EU's statement is the violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relation, for this reason, the Cambodian government asked the EU to not doing so and to follow closely the convention.
"The above said statement is a clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relation Article 41 which stipulates that all diplomatic missions have duty to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State and they also have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State," read the statement of the Cambodian government.
No comments:
Post a Comment