The LSS2 dam blocked 2 of the Mekong River Basin’s largest rivers, with serious social, economic and cultural impacts.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBunly Soeung<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t23 January, 2022\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \n\t\t<\/div>\n \n\t<\/div>\n In 2018, almost 20 people representing more than 200<\/a> Chong indigenous families submitted petitions to MoRD, the Prime Minister\u2019s cabinet and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to request intervention to help them gain official recognition in Koh Kong province\u2019s Areng Valley, after their petition was denied by local authorities. MoRD\u2019s chief of the administrative department received the petition<\/a> and promised to bring it to his superior. Many Chong activists have been arrested for their campaign against hydro-power dam <\/em>in the area. As of May 2022, approximately 300 hectares<\/a> of indigenous Chong land in Koh Kong province has been demarcated and the Ministry of Environment plans to hand land back to Chong indigenous people.<\/p>\n In 2021, the government reviewed the application process for indigenous collective land title, and Indigenous land use in general.<\/p>\n Non-indigenous and indigenous peoples alike have suffered from the disastrous impact on socio-cultural aspects of their lives caused by domestic and foreigner companies that received ELCs. However, indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable since their social, cultural and economic ties are deeply ingrained in forest land.<\/p>\n An indigenous rights movement began in the late 1990s<\/a> when the government has attracted a number of domestic and foreign companies to engage in large-scale land investment<\/a> in agro-industry. However, with deterioration of freedom of expression<\/a> and human rights violations perpetuated by recently introduced punitive regulations, such as the 2018 revision of the Penal Code on lese majeste<\/em><\/a> and Proclamation No. 170<\/a> on publication controls of website and social media processing via internet in the Kingdom of Cambodia, indigenous activism against those companies remains under severe pressure and has become more perilous.<\/p>\n Since 2017, the government has beefed up its effort to crackdown down on indigenous environmental activists who peacefully advocate to protect the environment and natural resources of indigenous communities. On 26th<\/sup> April, 2012, indigenous environmental activist Chut Wuthy was shot dead by military police while repeatedly investigating illegal logging and land seizures with two journalists in the protected forests in Koh Kong province near the Thai border. He was one of Cambodia\u2019s most dedicated, prominent land and environmental activist<\/a>, but a spokesman for the government\u2019s Council of Ministers called him a great log trader<\/a>.<\/p>\n In October 2015, a Chong activist<\/a> named Ven Vorn, who had played key role in campaign against the Areng hydro power dam, was arrested and imprisoned for 5 months on charges of illegally harvesting forest products. In 2021, five environmental activists<\/a> from Mother Nature Cambodia were sentenced to between 18 and 20 months in prison and a fine of 4 million Riels on charges of \u00a0<\/a> and insulting the king.<\/p>\n Indigenous peoples in Cambodia continuously face land evictions. An estimated 600,000 people have been forcibly evicted from their homes. Campaigns against illegal land grabbing are dangerous. In 2012, security forces opened fire on 1000 families in the Kratie province. A 14 year-old girl was killed. The families were forcibly evicted to make space for agribusiness Casotim. No free, prior, informed consent was obtained from the people before removing them from their lands, and no fair compensation was offered. The proposed Stung Cheay Areng Dam project in the Areng Valley, home to the indigenous Chong people, was another prominent, similar case. In another case, the 2017 Lower Sesan II (LSS2) hydro dam project in Steung Treng province has had a catastrophic impact on the cultural rights of the Bunong ndigenous communities<\/a>.<\/p>\n The violation of land rights of marginalised indigenous people in Cambodia has been glaring and rampant. Opaque ELC policy, lengthy, expensive communal land titling processes and the dominance of well-established patronage-client relationships continue to exclude them. Their right to free, prior and informed consent is completely ignored. There are no sufficient ways for them to meaningfully engage in the design and implementation of development projects. Consequently, far-reaching environmental, economic, and sociocultural impacts put their lives and livelihoods at greater risk and their future prospects remain gloomy if their land rights are not promoted and protected properly.<\/p>\n The post Campaigns, criminalisation and concessions: indigenous land rights in Cambodia<\/a> appeared first on New Mandala<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" All Cambodians suffer from natural resources exploitation, but indigenous peoples’ social, cultural and economic ties are deeply ingrained in forests<\/p>\n The post Campaigns, criminalisation and concessions: indigenous land rights in Cambodia<\/a> appeared first on New Mandala<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11722,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708,190,19227,393,3522,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11722"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":773293,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773110\/revisions\/773293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\t <\/em><\/p>\nCriminalising human rights and environmental defenders<\/h4>\n