Cambodian judiciary under further threat

Cambodia's draft laws on the judiciary is raising concerns that they will further entrench government control and influence of the courts.

Cambodian judiciary under further threat (Credit: ABC) Listen to the audio here.

The proposed laws, drafted in secret, give the Justice minister control over all key decisions by the Cambodian judiciary and also, the body charged with appointing, disciplining and overseeing of judges.

If passed, the laws will undermine judicial independence which is protected by Cambodia's constitution and international law.

Presenter: Sen Lam

Speaker: David Chandler, Professor Emeritus of History at Monash University.

CHANDLER: They're angered by what seems to them a tightening up of government control over the judiciary. Well, there's no indication that there's any possibility of loosening government control under the old regulations or under anything else. The judiciary has never been independent in Cambodia, has always been tied to the Executive, which, of course, is if you want to get an ancestry for that, that's the French system, where the Minister of Interior is tied in with the justice system. But it's never been independent and this is upsetting, as it's  been combined with  large,  wide scale corruption. These people are underpaid, they have to answer to government pressures, they make quite a lot of harsh and dangerous political judgements on political issues as they're told to do by the ruling party. But yes, there were disturbing aspects to what seems to be the draft laws, but I think the whole situation is disturbing and it's just one more example of how distressing the judicial system in Cambodia is.

 

LAM: As you say, there already is great political control over the judiciary in Cambodia, but might the new draft laws make a bad situation even worse?

 

CHANDLER:  It's hard to say, I don't see how you could make the situation much worse. It just makes it a little more efficient and they can say this is how it works. But I mean..

 

LAM: So as far as you're concerned, there are positive things about these new draft laws?

 

CHANDLER: No, I don't see anything positive about it, except for the general bureaucratic things, like they're cleaning up some ambiguities and I think the idea that the Minister of Justice should be responsible for the judiciary, what they're objecting to in the Human Rights Watch is the Minister of Justice is a very political job, is given to him by the ruling party. But on paper, it looks as if that's the person who should be in charge. I mean this is what the Attorney-General is in charge of the federal judiciary in the United States and so on. I mean it looks like it's a reform, but it's probably just cleaning up some ambiguous language.

 

LAM: So in essence, what do you think exactly is the Hun Sen government aiming to do with these new draft laws?

 

CHANDLER: They'll just make sure that they can keep their control, that it's completely unthreatened... 

 

Another point to be raised here is, of course, the place where this draft law discussed is in the National Assembly, but the Opposition Party has for reasons that still elude me have refused to take up the seats they won in that election, so they're not in a position to debate this law and may be that's an issue, but I think there's no forum for this law to be debated in any case. They are a minority party and the party that is not in power does not have the same voice as those in power, it's the same that is true here. But if they refuse to take any seats, they can't open any debates and they can't claim that they're part of the government and I think it's a betrayal of their voters. They're voters wanted these people to be in the National Assembly and 55 at least of them, at least 55 of them won seats. They say that they won the whole election and so on and we don't have evidence of that and they would have been unable to govern the country in any case if they won the election. But that's a point to be raised on this issue is that it should be debated in the Parliament, but Hun Sen is just riding roughshod over that, because it doesn't distress him that these people aren't there.

 

LAM: Should Cambodia's donors register concern over this? Do you think they have some kind of responsibility?

 

CHANDLER: Oh yes, I think they probably will express concern. I think they've been expressing concern on lots of fronts for many years and I think this is another occasion to yes, to express concern, but Hun Sen's going to say, he's going to think to himself does this have any affect on the amount of money and aid I'm getting?  He is going to know that this is not the case, so that these representations will have no effect.