View previous stories
	Ten humanitarian crises to look out for in 2018 by CARE International, IRIN Editors   10 most under-reported humanitarian crises of 2017. (CARE International)   The international aid organization CARE has launched a new report highlighting 2017’s ten most under-reported humanitarian crises. The report “Suffering in Silence” found that the humanitarian situation in North Korea received the least media attention globally. While much media focus has been on nuclear brinkmanship, the humanitarian situation has been overlooked. Other crises that rarely made the headlines were Eritrea, Burundi, Sudan, Central African Republic, DRC, Mali, Lake Chad Basin (Niger, Cameroon, Chad), Vietnam and Peru.   “We all know that a single photo can make the world turn its attention to an issue. But the people in the countries featured in CARE’s report are far away from the cameras and microphones of this world”, says Laurie Lee, CARE International’s Interim Secretary General. “These crises might not make the media headlines, but that does not mean we can forget about them.”   “The media plays a vital role in drawing public attention to forgotten and neglected crises”, says Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “Despite the tragic consequences for the lives of millions affected by conflict and displacement, the gap between humanitarian needs and available funding continues to exist.   The outlook for 2018 is grim, as the political will to resolve conflicts and address the root causes that are driving them – poor governance, growing impoverishment, inequality and climate change, is weak. Political leaders must step up and shoulder responsibility for tackling today''s forgotten crises.”   “The countries on this list are exactly the kinds of places we focus our attention as a non-profit news organization that reports about humanitarian crises,” says Heba Aly, director of IRIN News. “But as this report points out, this kind of work is difficult to finance and increasingly rare. It’s time we start recognizing that quality journalism about crises is part of the solution.”   In 2018, many of those disasters will continue to rage. Poor families struggle to survive, as their capacities to absorb future shocks are diminishing, with conflicts lasting for decades, livelihoods being lost, and assets depleted. The UN’s Global Humanitarian Overview for 2018 requires $22.5 billion to help almost 91 out of 135 million people in urgent need.   http://www.care-international.org/suffering-in-silence/   Dec. 2017   IRIN Editors sketch out the gloomy-looking horizon for next year   From the Rohingya to South Sudan, hurricanes to famine, 2017 was full of disasters and crises. But 2018 is shaping up to be even worse. Here’s why.   The UN has appealed for record levels of funding to help those whose lives have been torn apart, but the gap between the funding needs and the funding available continues to grow.   And what makes the outlook especially bad for 2018 is that the political will needed to resolve conflicts, welcome refugees, and address climate change also appears to be waning. What a difference a year, a new US president, and a German election make.   Here’s our take on 10 crises that will shape the humanitarian agenda in 2018   Syria’s sieges and displacement   As Syria heads towards seven years of war and Western governments quietly drop their demands for political transition, it has become increasingly clear that President Bashar al-Assad will stay in power, at least in some capacity.   But that doesn’t mean the violence or suffering is over: pockets of resistance are still being starved into submission and being denied aid – nearly three million Syrians still live in areas the UN defines as besieged or “hard to reach” (see: eastern Ghouta right now), while chemical weapons are deployed to horrifying effect.   There’s talk of reconstruction where the fighting has fizzled out, be it in areas brought under the government’s control or in cities like Raqqa, which is now controlled by Kurdish forces but has a mixed population that is beginning to come home, to utter destruction.   Investors are lining up for a slice of the rebuilding pie. But an average of 6,550 Syrians were displaced by violence each day in 2017. So what of the 6.1 million and counting displaced inside Syria – many sheltering in tents or unfinished buildings and facing another long winter – not to mention the 5.5 million refugees abroad? Will they have a say in how Syria is rebuilt? With reconstruction already a major bone of contention in peace talks and the EU planning to get involved in 2018, how this plays out is important and worth watching.   Congo unravels   You know the situation is bad when people start fleeing their homes, and it doesn’t get much worse than the Democratic Republic of the Congo.   Here, violence in its eastern provinces has triggered the world’s worst displacement crisis – for a second year in a row. More than 1.7 million people abandoned their farms and villages this year, on top of 922,000 in 2016. The provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu, Kasai, and Tanganyika are the worst affected and the epicentres of unrest in the country.   New alliances of armed groups have emerged to take on a demoralised government army and challenge President Joseph Kabila in distant Kinshasa. He refused to step down and hold elections in 2016 when his constitutionally mandated two-term limit expired – and the political ambition of some of these groups is to topple him. These rebellions are a new addition to the regular lawlessness of armed groups and conflict entrepreneurs that have stalked the region for years. It is a confusing cast of characters, in which the army also plays a freelance role and, as IRIN reported this month, as an instigator of some of the rights abuses that are forcing civilians to flee.   As we enter 2018, more than 13 million people require humanitarian assistance and protection – that’s close to six million more people than at the start of 2017. Over three million people are severely food insecure in the Kasai region alone, their villages and fields looted. Aid is only slowly trickling in. The $812 million appeal for Congo is less than 50 percent funded. That lack of international commitment represents the single largest impediment to the humanitarian response.   Yemen slips further towards famine   If we repeat the words “world’s worst humanitarian crisis” so often that they starting to lose gravity, here are a few numbers that might help hammer home just how grim life has become after more than two and a half years of war in Yemen, a country of more than 29 million: 8.4 million people are on the verge of starvation; 400,000 children have severe acute malnutrition (that’s as bad as it gets), and more than 5,500 civilians have been killed.   Last January, we warned Yemen was at serious risk of sliding into famine. That now seems a near-certainty and may be unfolding right now, with the Saudi Arabian-led coalition continuing to restrict or at least delay commercial imports of food and fuel (among other goods), causing prices to shoot up and meaning those on the margin no longer have enough cash to buy the bare necessities.   And what of that cholera epidemic that killed 2,226 and infected nearly a million since April before receding? Nobody has been vaccinated, fuel shortages mean less clean water, and the rainy season is coming. All of this combines to create a real risk that the disease will make a comeback. Diphtheria is on the rise, too. None of this happens in a vacuum: without proper nutrition, Yemenis are increasingly susceptible to illness.   South Sudan – it could get even worse   A much-anticipated ceasefire in South Sudan didn’t last long. It came into effect at midnight on Christmas Eve, and a few hours later government and rebel forces were fighting around the northern town of Koch in Unity State. The violence hasn’t derailed the peace talks underway in Addis Ababa, but it does point to how difficult it will be for the internationally-backed diplomatic process to shape events on the ground.   The ceasefire is between President Salva Kiir and several rebel groups, but confidence is low that negotiations can bring a quick and decisive end to a war entering its fifth year.   South Sudan has fragmented, with a host of ethnic militias emerging with shifting loyalties. The various members of this so-called “gun class” all want a seat at the table, in the belief that any future agreement will be based on a power-sharing deal and a division of the country’s resources along the lines of the last failed settlement.   The international community lacks leverage and neighbouring countries don’t have the unity of purpose necessary to achieve a broad-based and sustainable peace agreement.   What that means is that more refugees – on top of an existing two million – will continue to pour across the country’s borders as the fighting season resumes.   It also means some seven million people inside the country – almost two thirds of the remaining population – will still need humanitarian assistance; hunger will also continue to threaten millions as a result of the war, displacement, and collapse of the rural economy. And yes, there will be the threat of renewed famine.   One final ingredient in the brew of despair is that the humanitarian community’s access to those in need will be constrained by both the prevailing insecurity and the government’s cynical taxation of aid operations.   CAR – where humanitarians fear to tread   There are many reasons why Central African Republic was officially the unhappiest country in the world in 2017.   You can start with the 50 percent increase in the number of displaced, bringing the total to 633,000 people. Then there are the more than two million hungry people, and the half a million who have figured it’s just too hard to stay and have left for neighbouring countries.   It’s not much fun being an aid worker either. In November another humanitarian worker was killed in the north of the country, bringing to 14 the number to have died this year. The level of violence has forced aid agencies to repeatedly suspend operations as their personnel, convoys, and bases are deliberately targeted.   Behind the insecurity is a four-year conflict between competing armed groups that neither a weak government nor an under-staffed UN peacekeeping mission can contain. It pits mainly Muslim ex-Séléka rebels against Christian anti-Balaka, but some of the worst fighting has its roots in the splintering of the Séléka coalition and a feud between former allies.   The violence across the country boils down to the lucrative control of natural resources and the taxes the groups raise from checkpoints. Such is the insecurity that the government’s writ doesn’t even cover all of the capital, Bangui.   Rohingya refugees in limbo; forgotten conflicts simmer elsewhere in Myanmar   After a catastrophic year in which more than 655,000 people were driven out of Myanmar’s Rakhine State, it’s hard to imagine 2018 could go any worse for the Rohingya minority.   But, with nearly a million Rohingya refugees crowded into overloaded settlements in southern Bangladesh, the new year brings a host of new questions.   The sudden exodus of refugees captured the world’s attention, but as the crisis shifts from emergency response to long-term survival, will the focus – and funding – keep pace with the pressing needs on the ground?   Can the fragile settlements withstand a significant storm, or even the seasonal monsoon rains that will fall in a few short months? And will the Bangladeshi and Myanmar authorities try to make good on a plan to repatriate Rohingya refugees despite warnings from any number of aid groups, rights monitors, and UN agencies, and a troubling history of less-than-voluntary returns?   While Rakhine State smoulders, long-simmering conflicts continue to fly under the radar elsewhere in Myanmar. Clashes between Myanmar’s military and ethnic armed groups in the country’s north have escalated, largely out of the public spotlight.   In northern Kachin and Shan states, some 100,000 people have been uprooted since 2011, when a government ceasefire with the Kachin Independence Army collapsed. Roughly 40 percent of these people live in areas outside government control. But Myanmar has also put limits on aid access to areas even under its authority, mirroring the more publicised restrictions in place in Rakhine.   Buried somewhere is Myanmar’s long-stalled peace process involving myriad ethnic armed groups operating across the country. A new round of talks is set for later in January. But with only a handful of armed groups on board with a tenuous ceasefire agreement and other key players excluded entirely, a politically negotiated peace remains elusive.   Afghans return to flaring conflict   Afghanistan begins 2018 facing another volatile year. Conflict has displaced more than one million Afghans over the last two years. But added to this are the ever-growing numbers of Afghans returning from (or rather kicked out of) Europe and neighbouring countries like Pakistan and Iran. They’re coming back to a country that the UN in August concluded was no longer in “post-conflict” mode but in active conflict once again, one where a resurgent Taliban and emboldened Islamic State-aligned militants vie for control as the government’s grasp weakens.   The problem can be summarised in one ominous chart, which shows US military estimates that the Afghan government has influence in less than 57 percent of the country’s districts:   The raging conflict has had disastrous impacts on Afghan civilians. Last year saw civilian casualties soar to near record-high levels, and an escalating number of people were killed in attacks targeting places of worship – something the UN has called a “disturbing” new element to the violence. Healthcare continues to come under siege, with skirmishes severing access to hospitals and clinics, and aid workers caught in the crossfire.   The next 12 months could prove an even greater challenge. January is the start of Afghanistan’s food “lean season”, which will hit those already uprooted by conflict particularly hard. It’s now begrudgingly accepted that a viable peace settlement must include the Taliban – a once unthinkable suggestion – but there has been “no meaningful progress”. With parliamentary elections scheduled for July 2018, the battle for control of Afghanistan will continue on multiple fronts as the snows melt and the fighting resumes in earnest.   Venezuelan exodus to strain neighbours   The descent of Venezuela from oil-rich powerhouse to economic basketcase has been well chronicled.   Less thoroughly reported, partly due to media restrictions under the increasingly authoritarian rule of Hugo Chávez’s successor, President Nicolas Máduro, has been the extent of the humanitarian crisis. Shortages of basic goods and soaring inflation have led to growing reports of severe childhood malnutrition in addition to a general healthcare crisis, and to more than a million Venezuelans fleeing the country.   If 2017 was the year when the scale of crisis within Venezuela began to reveal itself, 2018 is set to be when the full effects are felt beyond its borders. The political situation underpinning this crisis is only likely to worsen. Elections, slated for December 2018, are expected to be brought forward and foisted upon a weary, hungry, and increasingly desperate electorate that is sharply divided. Unrest or government crackdowns will only send more Venezuelans pouring over the border.   There are already signs that regional hospitality is wearing thin and of emergency camps being prepared. The International Monetary Fund predicted that Venezuela’s triple-digit inflation could soar to more than 2,300 percent in 2018. As the year closed out, opposition parties were barred from the election, a main opposition leader was banned from political activity for 15 years, and violent pro-democracy protests rocked the capital, Caracas. None of this augurs well.   Libya: Africa’s giant holding cell   An AU-EU summit at the end of 2017 seemed to offer a glimmer of hope for the 700,000 to one million migrants stuck in the nightmare that is Libya.   It produced a plan to repatriate those who want it, and to move others from squalid detention centres into better conditions.   Some flights home did subsequently take off, and a first group (of 162 refugees and migrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Yemen) was even evacuated by the UN on 22 December from Libya to Italy. But we’ve yet to see how this scheme will play out, and there are some serious obstacles. Many migrants have nowhere safe to return to, and it’s not clear how a UN-backed government that controls little in the way of territory or popular support will manage to move and protect migrants in a country with multiple governments, militias, and tribes.   That the meeting even got press (in large part thanks to a CNN film of what appeared to be a slave auctions) in an oft-ignored country is a sign of how little the world cares about the mostly sub-Saharan African migrants in Libya, for whom kidnapping, extortion, and rape have become the norm.   European policy has largely focused on keeping migrants from boarding boats in the Mediterranean or reaching their shores – creating a situation that is bad enough for Libyans and shockingly worse for Africans. At the summit, French President Emmanuel Macron mooted a military and police initiative inside Libya, plus UN sanctions for people-smugglers. How this could actually work is anyone’s guess, and it seems unlikely to get at the source of many migrants’ woes: the lack of legal avenues to get out of the desperate situations that brought them to Libya’s hell in the first place.   A year of turmoil in Cameroon   It’s taken just over a year for political agitation in Cameroon’s anglophone region to turn into armed opposition against the government of President Paul Biya.   Separatism was only a fringe idea until the government cracked down hard on protesters demanding greater representation for the neglected minority region. Now, government soldiers are being killed, Biya is promising all-out war, and thousands of refugees are fleeing into neighbouring Nigeria.   Anglophone Cameroon is becoming radicalised. Refugees recounting experiences of killings by the security forces talk of revenge, and commentators worry that the opportunity for negotiations with more moderate anglophone leaders – those pursuing a policy of civil disobedience and diplomatic pressure on Yaoundé – may be rapidly shrinking.   If the government believes there is a military solution to the activists’ demands for an independent “Ambazonia”, made up of the two anglophone regions of western Cameroon, they may well be mistaken. Where the separatists’ training camps are being established, next to the Nigerian border, is a remote and heavily forested zone – ideal for guerrilla warfare.   Biya, 85 in February and in power for the past 35 years, is standing in elections once again in 2018. The “anglophone crisis” and the potential of an even larger refugee exodus will not only leave him politically damaged but could be regionally destabalising, especially as Nigeria faces its own separatist challenge.   http://www.irinnews.org/feature/2017/12/31/ten-humanitarian-crises-look-out-2018 http://www.icrc.org/en/document/7-issues-will-shape-humanitarian-agenda-2018 http://bit.ly/2EaUXFI http://www.thp.org/top-10-opportunities-for-2018/ http://www.crisisgroup.org/global/10-conflicts-watch-2018 http://interactive.unocha.org/publication/globalhumanitarianoverview Visit the related web page
	Cambodia: UN human rights office concerned by media, civil society curbs by OHCHR, HRW, Open Democracy, agencies   Nov. 2017   UN experts urge ASEAN summit to address regional human rights concerns. (OCHHR)   Four UN human rights experts have called on Member States to address pressing human rights issues during the 31st ASEAN Summit being held during November in the Philippines.   Recognising the important work of the many active civil society organisations across the region, the experts expressed concern about “a worrying deterioration in the environment in which they operate.”   “Human rights defenders, social activists, lawyers, journalists, independent media and even parliamentarians trying to speak out and protect the rights of others, increasingly face a multitude of risks ranging from judicial harassment and prosecution to threats, disappearances and killings,” said the experts.   They observed rising numbers of cases of serious human rights violations affecting among others, people working on women’s rights, environmental and land issues and lawyers dealing with drug cases.   The experts called on the 10 ASEAN Member States to amend or repeal existing legislation and to reconsider draft laws that are being or could be applied to criminalize or restrict the vital work of civil society.   “We condemn the public vilification, harassment, arrests and killings of members of civil society, and call on Member States to rigorously uphold their duty to ensure the freedom and protection of those exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly,” the experts said.   “Independent media, members of civil society and human rights defenders should be viewed as partners and as an essential element of democracy.”   The experts highlighted that these rights also apply online, expressing dismay at the increasing harassment and prosecutions of bloggers, journalists and social media users.   They also urged Member States to do more to protect all vulnerable groups, reminding governments that inclusion and meaningful participation are elements of the Sustainable Development Goals.   The experts highlighted that the 50th anniversary of ASEAN provides an important opportunity for Member States to publicly renew their individual and collective commitments to the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration and international human rights conventions, both in practice and spirit. They encouraged the governments to see human rights monitoring and reporting, not as a threat, but as a positive tool that can help them comply with these commitments. http://bit.ly/2zEYCu8   * Forum Asia: http://bit.ly/2yvNHS4 http://bit.ly/2zCsnhd   Nov. 2017   The United Nations human rights chief voiced grave concerns Friday about the conduct of credible, free and fair elections in Cambodia next year following the decision by the Supreme Court to dissolve the main opposition party.   “An effective multi-party democracy requires an opposition that can operate freely without intimidation and threats – and the same goes for a credible, free and fair election,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra''ad Al Hussein in a news release.   The court dissolved the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), the main opposition party, on Thursday after the Ministry of Interior complained that the opposition was plotting a so-called colour revolution against the Government. A total of 118 CNRP members were banned from political activity for five years.   “People need to be able to debate and discuss freely the political affairs of their country, and the decision to dissolve the CNRP has deprived over three million voters of their representation,” Mr. Zeid said.   The party''s dissolution follows the arrest on 3 September of CNRP president Kem Sokha on charges of ''treason'' related to comments made in 2013 about his grassroots political strategy to challenge the current Government.   “The use of law against the CNRP and its members is a smokescreen – it is the rule by law, and not the rule of law. The accusations against the CNRP and its members were vague, as were the legal provisions supporting the complaint to dissolve it,” Mr. Zeid said, adding the dissolution of the CNRP was based on alleged criminal acts by Kem Sokha which had not been proved in a court of law.   Mr. Zeid said the party''s dissolution and the ban on its members was all the more worrying, given other measures by the Government in recent months, including closure and suspension of civil society groups as well several media companies. It has also been targeting individual journalists and members of non-governmental organizations.   “An essential component of all democracies is a vibrant civil society, including NGOs and press that may sometimes be critical of the Government,” said Mr. Zeid. “Imposing limits on civil society and shrinking their space serves only to stymie the creativity, innovation and ingenuity necessary for Cambodia to continue to develop, and to maintain peace.”   Similarly, he stressed, “a free press is essential to ensure that the public is properly informed of political and other issues so that people can be responsible and engaged actors.”   http://news.un.org/en/story/2017/11/636482-un-rights-chief-voices-concern-about-cambodia-election-after-opposition-ban   The criminalisation of civil society and political opposition in Cambodia, by Alice Beban, Laura Schoenberger. (Open Democracy)   In Cambodia, political violence in the run-up to the 2018 general election signals a move away from an explicitly populist authoritarianism towards a deeper authoritarianism.   Cambodia burst onto global news headlines in late 2017 when the Supreme Court dissolved the main opposition party, but behind this political spectacle lay a series of smaller legal changes, political violence and geopolitical shifts that set the stage for the turn to deeper authoritarian rule.   For more than thirty years, the world’s longest serving Prime Minister has been the archetypal populist strongman. He and his party (the Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP) combine terror and censorship with personalised political handouts, promises of post-war stability, and a veneer of democracy.   This regime depends on funds channelled through networks of political and business elite who are awarded land and mineral concessions in return for donations to the ruling party. At the same time as rural areas have become ‘sacrifice zones’ for the enrichment of domestic and international elite, rural voters have long been the most consistent and reliable supporters of Hun Sen’s government.   In Cambodia’s post-genocidal context, many rural people crave the stability and the ‘gift giving’ that Hun Sen’s regime has provided. This has allowed the party to marginalize opposition and build an elaborate system of mass patronage and mobilization.   But in the past decade, land grabbing and logging have had serious impacts and rural people have become more outspoken and connected with disaffected urban voters. The 2013 national election was the ruling party’s worst outcome since 1998, with a united opposition (the CNRP) winning 44% of the vote. Strikes erupted in the aftermath of the election and persisted for half the year until military police shot dead five protesters.   Then, in the June 2017 sub-national (‘Commune’) elections, the CNRP shocked the ruling party by winning almost half the popular vote and gaining 482 commune seats, up from a mere 40 seats in the previous election. This was a wake-up call that the CPP were at risk of being unseated in the 2018 National Election. After the commune elections, the ruling party stepped-up press censorship, extra-judicial violence and threats of military intervention.   A series of quiet law changes have facilitated the criminalisation of civil society and political opposition. The Law on NGOs and Associations limits the ability for people to gather without registering with the Ministry of Interior and increases surveillance of NGOs. Amendments to the Law on Political Parties led to the resignation of long-time leader of the opposition, Sam Rainsy, in February 2017. Further legal moves that year introduced legislation that allowed the government to easily disband political parties, which was used to shut down the main opposition party eight months later.   The media is also targeted; changes to the national media code enabled the government to shut down 19 independent radio stations as well as the long-running newspaper The Cambodia Daily. By late 2017, with critical media outlets silenced and activists fearful of open protests, the way was opened for the government to launch an outright attack on the political opposition. Just after midnight on Sunday 3 September (the day before shutting the Daily), over one hundred armed soldiers broke into CNRP leader Kem Sokha’s house and detained him without warning. He was later charged with treason.   In November, the Supreme Court dissolved the opposition party, re-assigning its seats and banning 118 individuals from political activities for five years. In February 2018, the National Assembly passed Thai-style Lèse majesté laws that forbid insults to the monarchy, along with a series of vague changes to the Cambodian Constitution, including a change that would allow the permanent removal of voting rights for convicted felons.   As the CPP close media outlets and attack opposition parties, they are also bolstering their own propaganda machine. The Phnom Penh Post was slapped with a phony tax bill and sold off in May 2018 to a CPP-aligned businessman who has claimed full editorial approval, causing the editor in chief and key journalists to quit to maintain integrity.   The state news app, “Fresh News”, spreads pro-government propaganda across Facebook and other state-run media. New pro-government research institutions, a ‘spy school’ to develop surveillance technologies, and the creation of an inter-ministerial working group to produce anti-opposition propaganda are being used to justify state violence.   Cambodia has been emboldened by the rise of China’s infrastructural support outflanking western donor funds to Cambodia, and Trump’s near-total disengagement on Southeast Asia, coupled with his own attacks on US media. Hun Sen has seized upon people’s latent anti-western sentiment, aggressively deploying ‘us/them’ rhetoric to draw suspicion over the opposition party and western-funded media and NGOs.   What we see in Cambodia currently is the failure of a populism built on the backs of natural resource rents. Support for the government has broken down as the population grows tired of naked resource extraction, cronyism and inequality.   We won’t know until the July 2018 elections and its aftermath whether this radical redrawing of the Cambodian political landscape is a short-term crackdown prior to the 2018 election, or a ‘new normal’ of naked authoritarianism.   We do know that what is happening is truly bad. In late 2017, we interviewed fifteen journalists who work with rural communities. They told us repeatedly about the pervasive loss people are experiencing in the wake of the crackdown: loss of media’s potential to hold the political elite accountable; loss of rural people’s voice; and loss of hope for rural social movements. Journalists were especially critical of what is left: social media platforms that authoritarian actors can easily co-opt to reshape what is considered ‘news’. From the journalists’ vantage point, the closure of independent media has left rural people “in the dark… their voice is lost”.   However, rural activists and networks of farmers throughout the Cambodian countryside are resilient and creative; they show that there is potential for things to be otherwise. The darkness is not total. http://bit.ly/2O59ckS   * Alice Beban is a Lecturer in Sociology at Massey University in New Zealand, Laura Schoenberger is Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Ottawa. This article is part of a Open Democracy series on ‘confronting authoritarian populism and the rural world’, and linked to the Emancipatory Rural Politics Initiative (ERPI): http://bit.ly/2Kf2KbQ   Oct. 2017   Democratic Space under Attack in Cambodia   On October 23, 2017, 55 international civil society organizations (CSOs) issued an open letter about the government’s extreme crackdown on Cambodia’s independent media, political opposition, and members of civil society over the past year.   In addition to the Cambodian National Assembly’s recent attempt to pass legislation that allows the government to dissolve political parties, the letter notes that independent media outlets have come under new unprecedented attacks. The government forced radio stations to end 31 programs because of politically motivated “licensing infringements” charges, and forced the Cambodia Daily to shutter due to a $6.3 million tax fine in September 2017.   In light of the crackdown, and in honor of the 26th anniversary of the Paris Peace Agreements, the open letter asked the chairs of the 1991 Paris Conference on Cambodia to reconvene the Conference with the participation of the original founders and relevant stakeholders.   Additionally, the letter requested the engagement of the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres, as well as the President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, and the President of France, Emmanuel Macron; Indonesia and France served as the Co-Chairs of the 1991 Paris Conference on Cambodia. Signed on October 23, 1991, the Paris Peace Agreements called for democracy in Cambodia, ended the Cambodian-Vietnamese War, and halted 20 years of conflict in the country.   * Civil society’s letter: http://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/23/joint-letter-cambodia-re-paris-peace-accords-france-and-indonesia   Aug. 2017   Measures in Cambodia, which left radio programmes and licences suspended, have sparked the United Nations human rights office to call on the Government for political and civil rights guarantees.   “We are concerned by a rapid series of ministerial and administrative measures which have resulted in the suspension of radio programmes and licences, threatened a main English-language newspaper with closure, and shut down a foreign non-governmental organisation,” Liz Throssell, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters at a regular press briefing.   “Ahead of next year''s general election, we call on the Government to guarantee full political and civil rights, and media freedoms,” she added.   The National Democratic Institute (NDI), a foreign non-governmental organization (NGO), was shut down by ministerial order on 23 August, in the first such closure brought under the 2015 Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organisations.   Noting that the organisation has been working on elections and with parties across the political spectrum, OHCHR pointed out that its international staff were given seven days to leave the country.   Earlier this month, three Cambodian organisations working on human rights and elections were also subjected to targeted tax investigations.   “We have concerns that NDI was closed without due process, and are worried about the overall deterioration of the environment for human rights defenders and civil society in Cambodia,” continued Ms. Throssell.   Moreover, the Government this week has revoked licences for some radio frequencies, thus blocking programmes aired by national independent human rights and media organisations, US-funded stations Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, and the main opposition party.   The OHCHR spokesperson said that the Cambodia Daily, one of the main independent English-language newspapers, was given until 4 September to pay an alleged $6.3 million in tax arrears, or be closed. While the paper has called for a transparent tax audit and the right to appeal, its requests have gone unheeded.   “We call on the Royal Government of Cambodia to ensure due process in all measures taken, including the right to appeal, and to respect the rights to freedom of association and expression,” concluded Ms. Throssell.   * September 5, 2017--The Cambodia Daily stopped publication yesterday under official threat of forced closure over allegations of tax evasion, according to a statement released by the paper. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the silencing of the newspaper and called for an end to Cambodia''s harassment of all independent media. At least 19 radio stations have been closed in recent days on charges that they violated their state contracts.   The Cambodia Daily published its last edition under the headline "Descent into Outright Dictatorship," which accompanied a report on the September 3 arrest of opposition leader Kem Sokha on treason accusations, according to reports. The paper''s public statement on its decision to close said that the government had "destroyed.. a special and singular part of Cambodia''s free press."   "The Cambodia Daily''s closure under official pressure shows authorities increased hostility to press freedom in Cambodia," said Shawn Crispin, Committee to Protect Journalist''s senior Southeast Asia representative. "We urge Prime Minister Hun Sen to stop his government''s unwarranted harassment of independent media and recommit his country to upholding democratic values, including a free media.": http://bit.ly/2xcMwtN
	View more stories