WORLD/CAMBODIA: An appreciation of the protest by Prof. Yash Ghai at the UN HRC session

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AHRC-STM-242-2008
September 18, 2008

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

WORLD/CAMBODIA: An appreciation of the protest by Prof. Yash Ghai at
the UN HRC session

The protest made by Prof. Yash Ghai in his written statement to the
9th Session of the UN Human Rights Council is an eye-opener. He
speaks of the failure of the Cambodian government to cooperate with
his mandate, and instead rudely insult him. His comments demonstrate
the very serious decline in the cooperation of a number of states
with authoritarian regimes that are actively undermining the work of
the United Nations. The particular resistance of these states regards
issues insisting on the development of the rule of law, independence
of the judiciary and the protection of human rights. Prof. Yash Ghai
also complained about the inadequate backing he received from the
relevant UN agencies and the international community regarding his
work.

The mandate for a Special Representative for Human Rights in Cambodia
was created in 1993 and in the subsequent 15 years several special
representatives have held this post. They have all kept in contact
with the government, civil society organisations, international human
rights organisations and the Cambodian Office for Human Rights,
established after the UN sponsored elections in 1993. Commenting on
the recommendations of his predecessors Prof Yash Ghai stated that he
had reviewed the recommendations made previously and that he had to
repeat them. These repetitions included the recommendations of the
very first representative appointed in 1993. In simple terms this
implies that none of the recommendations have ever been implemented.
Perhaps Prof. Yash Ghai would have realised the wisdom of Einstein
who is quoted as saying that madness means repeatedly doing the same
thing, expecting a different result. Perhaps the 15 years of
experience of recommendation making by the UN to the Cambodian
government has proved that the only reaction of the Cambodian
government to such recommendations is to ignore them.

Prof. Yash Ghai also mentioned that he was repeatedly insulted by
Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Government spokesman and Information
Minister Khieu Kanharith. He said that the prime minister referred to
him as a deranged person, a tourist and a lazy person, while Khieu
Kanharith referred to him and human rights organisations as animals.
The spokesman also attacked Prof. Yash Ghai on a racial basis
referring to his nationality and saying that Kenyans are savages and
do not know the ways of the Aryans. Such personal attacks and slurs
on the basis of race are increasingly being used as a method adopted
by authoritarian regimes in attacking UN officers dealing with human
rights issues. Some countries attack such officers on the basis that
they are white westerners who suffer from the Anglo Saxon complex of
wanting to dominate the world. The essence of such attacks is a loud
cry which states clearly that "we do not want any exposure and
criticisms of our human rights record. It is our business". This
means that the absence of the rule of law, exploitation of the weak
by the powerful because the weak do not laws to protect them, the
stealing of their land and its distribution to the rich patrons of
powerful politicians and the use of the police to harass and to
intimidate the people are all local matters and should not be
commented upon by the United Nations.

The debate on Cambodia showed some countries calling upon the United
Nations to confine their support to whatever the governments
themselves want. For example, if the UN agency, observing that there
is weak rule of law in the country, requests the government to act on
this matter, the government may say that they do not need the
assistance of the UN on this matter but rather on some issues like
medical infrastructure or training the police and the like. The
attempt now is to demand that the UN accepts the country's denial of
rights by repression as a matter that should be left to the
government and the international discourse on these matters should be
of no concern to the United Nations. Often this approach is aimed at
requesting the United Nations for technical assistance while denying
the UN a role in monitoring the actual human rights situation faced
by the people.

Thus, there is a strong attempt to change the very discourse on human
rights. Ever since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights there has been a global discourse to improve human rights
standards for the benefit of all people in all countries. The
adoption of the Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights was a further step taken to improve the
global concern for human rights. This was followed by a large number
of other covenants relating to various specific aspects of human
rights such as the elimination of torture, extrajudicial killings,
discrimination against women, and equality before law, children's
rights and a vast number of other concerns. Now, a considerable
number of countries with authoritarian regimes have formed themselves
into a strong lobby to resist the influence of the human rights
discourse.

Prof. Yash Ghai also mentioned that he did not received adequate
backing when he was being undermined and insulted by the Cambodian
regime. He said that when the Cambodian prime minister mentioned that
he was carrying out his mandate only to make money the relevant UN
agencies did not make a public statement to say that the mandate was
carried out voluntarily and that no payment of money was involved in
this work. Having lacked such backing he had to make such a statement
by himself to counteract such false allegations.

This aspect of understanding and support for the work of UN officers
dealing with difficult situations has been a matter of serious
concern in recent times. There seems to be an alienation growing in
concerned governments and the relevant UN agencies and the various
mandate holders who are tasked with handling the grave situations of
human rights. Perhaps the international anti-terrorism drive has
undermined the international will to protect and promote human
rights.

Prof. Yash Ghai's protests need to be appreciated and lessons need to
be learned. It is very rare in international diplomacy for there to be
such a courageous and frank protest as has happened in this instance.
These need to be seen as eye-openers to the severe problems affecting
the movements for human rights and democracy globally.

# # #

About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional
non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights
issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

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