Cambodia Risks Violating the Right to Freedom of Association

In mid-June, the Council of Ministers sent the draft Law on Associations and Non-governmental Organisations (LANGO) to the National Assembly. In a letter to the President of the National Assembly, Civil Rights Defenders joins other international human rights groups in urging the legislature to immediately withdraw this severely flawed document and allow Cambodia’s civil society to continue to function as a critical player in providing crucial services supporting development and ensuring the protection and promotion of human rights.

If the LANGO is passed, the signatories warn, the government will be violating the right to freedom of association, guaranteed to all individuals by international human rights law, and the right to participate in the political economic social and cultural life of the nation, guaranteed by Cambodia’s Constitution.

Read the letter in full here.