Geneva (FN), Oct. 9 – Permanent Representative of Cambodia to the United Nations and International Organisations in Geneva regretted that the report on human rights situations in Cambodia does not set the record straight on many fronts due to incomplete and unbalanced integration of factual and legal accounts of various bodies of the State provided.

“Despite our clarifications and the government’s open and genuine dialogues, we regret that the report does not set the record straight on many fronts due to incomplete and unbalanced integration of factual and legal accounts of various bodies of the State provided,” according to the statement dated 7 October 2024.

The statement continued, Cambodia remains committed to her liberal democratic path. Multi-party elections are regularly held in the Kingdom. In the run-up to the communal and parliamentary elections in 2023 and 2024, civil and political space have been broadened. Among the convicts who engaged in instigating national insurgency, over a hundred of them have their political activity ban relinquished. They have formed and joined different political parties to compete in the recent elections.

“The general elections were recorded with the voter turnout of 84.59% to choose one of the 18 contesting political parties and their future leaders. The election has been widely assessed as free and fair, credible and just, by thousands of observers, including 333 from abroad representing 65 countries.

The absence of two political parties from the electoral process due to their non-compliance with the law does not negate the liberal democracy of the Kingdom.

Civic and political space are indisputably free and open, attested by the presence of over 6,000 civil society organisations and nearly 2,000 media outlets operating without censorship in the Kingdom. However, in Cambodia, as in other democratic societies, the exercise of democratic rights and freedom could not be at the expense of the rule of law.

Cambodia remains steadfast in promoting and protecting human rights under the Constitution and within the rule of law, and in pursuing our irreversible democratic journey with pluralism.”
=FRESH NEWS