Viewing entries tagged
UN
At 24, Samnang looks like many Cambodian men his age, dressed in a fitted plaid shirt and skinny jeans. Samnang is not his real name; he’s only agreed to let me record our conversation if I don’t identify him. He’s not shy, though, when asked about the first time he and his friends forced a woman to have sex. For PRI's The World, a look at Cambodia's alarming problem of gang rape.
For Khmer Rouge survivors, justice has many meanings.
Cambodian authorities assured the United States’ ambassador to the country that it would abide by international refugee protocols, just two days before it broke its obligations and deported a group of Uighur asylum-seekers to an uncertain future in China, according to documents leaked by the anti-secrecy group Wikileaks.
Details of Cambodia’s sudden U-turn, and the worried backroom consultations among the US Embassy, United Nations and Cambodian officials that preceded it, are contained in a series of diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks this month.
The classified documents highlight how the US and the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, were caught flat-footed in countering China’s influence in the lead-up to the controversial December 2009 deportation. And, say human rights observers, the cables cast a troubling spotlight on China’s ability to export its human rights agenda to developing countries like Cambodia.
A United Nations rights envoy says Cambodia must accelerate the pace of its democracy reforms, but it’s unclear how much sway he holds with a government that has become increasingly resistant to international criticism.
