PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Five international human rights groups Tuesday urged the Cambodian government to meet with a UN special envoy and to stop denying the problems facing the country.
Prime Minister Hun Sen said last week he would never see UN human rights envoy Yash Ghai (pictured), following his scathing appraisal of the nation's judicial system.
Hun Sen called Yash Ghai, a Kenyan lawyer, "a long-term tourist" and said "every time he comes, he always causes trouble."
In a statement, five top rights groups called on Cambodia to engage with Ghai to resolve critical issues, including improving the judicial system and ending the nation's land grabs.
"Rather than publicly rebuking the UN, the Cambodian government should meet with Yash Ghai and start seriously working on the recommendations included in his report," said Basil Fernando, executive director of the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission.
"There?s no denying the facts. Expropriation of the land of Cambodia?s poor is reaching a disastrous level, the courts are politicized and corrupt, and impunity for human rights violators remains the norm," Fernando said in a joint statement.
Human Rights Watch, the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, the International Federation for Human Rights, and the World Organisation against Torture also signed onto the statement.
Ghai ended a 10-day visit last week without obtaining a single meeting with any Cambodian officials.
Before leaving, Ghai said that Cambodia's judiciary has failed to provide justice, leaving the population in fear of going to court.
Ghai has repeatedly clashed with Cambodian leaders in the past due to his unusually blunt assessments of Cambodia's reform failures.
Hun Sen has never met Ghai, who was appointed as the UN rights envoy in November 2005.
The premier has called Ghai "stupid," "rude" and a "god without virtue."
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