CCHR Press Release - CCHR Launches New Human Rights Defenders Website - 18 January 2013

CCHR PRESS RELEASE – 18 January 2013, Phnom Penh

CCHR launches a new Human Rights Defenders website containing valuable information on international and Cambodian laws and an interactive legal forum

Today, 18 January 2013, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (“CCHR”) Human Rights Defenders Project launches a new website, www.sithi.org/hrd, which is designed to be an important source of information to assist human rights defenders (“HRDs”), lawyers and members of civil society in the legal protection and the promotion of human rights, particularly the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly in Cambodia.

The website is informative and user-friendly. It contains up-to-date laws and legal documents, as well as news, case studies, legal analyses, factsheets and CCHR HRD alerts – which are brief factual updates on the most recent HRD cases. All of the information is free to use and can be downloaded and redistributed.

The website will also include an interactive legal forum, where lawyers, students, academics, community activists and all other members of society can virtually come together to discuss issues relating to freedom of assembly, association, and expression, and to seek answers to legal or human rights related questions. The website will be continuously updated by CCHR staff and the forum will be managed by the HRD Project’s Senior Lawyer, Kong Pisey, who will be on hand to provide advice and assistance.

CCHR’s HRD Project Coordinator Suon Bunthoeun comments:

“We hope that this website will prove a valuable resource for anyone wanting to learn more about how to legally defend their human rights, especially the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association. CCHR would like to encourage people to visit the website at www.sithi.org/hrd and become part of this new interactive initiative to educate and empower HRDs, and Cambodian people in general, to promote and protect human rights and rule of law in Cambodia.”

For more information please contact Suon Bunthoeun via telephone at +855 (0) 12 483 546 or email at bunthoeun@cchrcambodia.org or CCHR Consultant Orla Kelly via telephone at +855 (0) 6772 7025 or email at orla.kelly@cchrcambodia.org.

Please also see this press release attached in PDF format in both Khmer and in English.